Educational charity the ifs School of Finance has welcomed news that Citizens Advice is to award £300,000 in grants for financial capability programmes.

Citizens Advice announced at a special reception in the House of Commons that it would be giving the grants to its bureaux, in order to help consumers learn to budget, save and borrow wisely.

Head of external affairs at the ifs School of Finance Anne Kiem said that it welcomed the grants, as they would help to equip many more people across the UK with money management skills.

She said that the organisation was committed to improving the nation's financial capability and would always welcome any measures that would achieve this.

Citizens Advice is the largest provider of free money advice in the UK and believes that financial capability is a key factor in addressing the nation's debt problem.

Local Citizens Advice bureaux now deal with around 1.25 million debt-related issues per year.