Numeracy tests not needed for Treasury Employees

[MsGreying]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/06/30/treasury-ditched-numeracy-test-to-increase-diversity-hires/

Department removed its mathematical assessment in 2020 to remove a ‘hurdle’ for candidates from ethnic minorities

AIBU to think this is bonkers.
Meritocracy has a very valid place in government.

DEI is total nonsense

anyone going to a uni anyway is going to have ok numeracy as it’s enforced earlier in the system.

It's really not. Most courses do not require A-level mathematics. And GCSE maths is trivial.

Numeracy does not equate to basic arithmetic!!

Did you read the article? I guess not.

It was for the HM Treasury’s Policy Adviser Graduate Programme. The 2026 Policy Adviser posting says the role includes “capturing and analysing data.”

I'm completely shocked by the responses on here. What's so bad about testing numerical skills and the ability to comprehend data? Honestly I wouldn't hire anyone that couldn't do this.

Having sat, and passed, the numerical test on multiple occasions, I can tell you being good at the maths required for that does not equate to being good at data analysis. By the same token I have a friend who is a very highly paid data analyst who is utterly shite at mental arithmetic.

So what if it does? I did that for my job for years. And I only have GCSEs.

No I didn't read the Telegraph article. Sorry. I don't read that type of newspaper.

When I graduated a lot of grad schemes required a numeracy test.

first comment - numeracy is NOT maths. You might be a great mathematician and good at stats and data analysis but need a calculator to work out your times tables.

second comment - a lot of the questions were very wordy and were torturing the English language quite a lot to get across what they wanted you to do. I’m a native English speaker and for some of the questions there was literally a paragraph of info to pick out what you needed to do

third comment - the tests I did were timed. And the time given was not long. If English was your second language that would slow you down, in practice nobody needs to do percentages at that sort of speed in real life. It’s a bit like the times tables yesterday in schools - yes, kids need to know their tables but when you get to the point that they need to answer in under a second it’s getting a bit ridiculous.

fourth comment, most of the tests needed to be done in controlled conditions and you had to book into an exam centre a bit like the ones for the driving theory test. It was a major pain in the bum to be honest and most people would need to travel to their nearest major town which yes is going to put off poorer and less advantaged applicants.

I bet she's shit at doing it in her head but can write stuff out and get her sums correct once she's shown her workings.

Again they need (or should) test for maths skill some way.

Er, in the education system numeracy usually does equate to basic arithmetic plus a few worded problems.

maths is a completely different proposition

So, it wasn't that the ethnic minorities can't pass, it was that a lengthy application process,with multiple steps requiring time off work, deters disadvantaged people, young people who are reliant on their own earned income, from applying or following through the application. And, ethnic minorities are disproportionally represented in that group.

Their aptitude for the role will be tested elsewhere in the process, so this makes it more likely they'll get the best candidates, not less, and shortening the process will save taxplayers' money too.

You worked at the treasury? Standards have changed and increased now. They actually want people with the right qualifications, not people who didn't bother with school after 16.

If you didn't read the article, what are you doing commenting on a thread all about it and what it said. You're completely uniformed as to what the changes were made regarding the assessments. Big 0 on verbal reasoning for you I guess.

Nope. He can't get his head round percentages even with a calculator. Why do they need to if it's not necessary?

They were online tests

Doesn't sound very intelligent to me. Wouldn't hire her for any data role at all. "Can't handle percentages".

My DS is a professional economist and is perfectly numerically capable, and you know what he can do percentages! He actually understands how things work.

Was it the standard CS numerical reasoning test? Because it was such a BS🙄
One I scored in top 5%, next one in bottom 40%. Honestly, useless test imho.

And a big 0 for critical thinking for you. The article is from a source known to be extremely anti-diversity and anti-civil service. The same source which has tried to claim that Flexi time and paid overtime isn't a thing in the private sector and is solely a Civil Service perk. The treasury quote refers to diversity alone and makes no mention of ethnicity.

Completely bonkers. Remove names, addresses and pictures for a fair recruitment process but don’t lower the standards of the process.

I mean he's got a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge. Fortunately for him whether you'd hire him or not is a moot point as he's got a pretty decent job without your input.

HM Treasury test-prep material describes the old Policy Adviser aptitude test as an online Saville-style test, with the numerical section reportedly only 8 questions in 6 minutes. So the test itself was unlikely to be the main “time off work” burden. Assessment centres and interviews could be more burdensome, but that is a different claim.

What bollocks. If a man can beat me in a numeracy test, he's welcome to the job. Bring it on. (Edit to add "diversity spread" is the bollocks part.)

Women and people of ethnic minorities don't want to be patronised. We want jobs based on our merit. Nor do we want mediocre colleagues.

Which still need time to be done and access to IT to be completed. No, not insurmountable, but if you want the best candidates you need to make the process simpler not harder. Robust, of course, but not unecessarily lenghty.

Nice of Jenrick to vocally oppose it now. Did he say anything when he was in government when it was introduced in 2020? He’s so transparent it’s pathetic.

So he has a natural science degree at Cambridge. So has maths and presumably further maths A-levels. Did university level maths (which isn't easy) but cannot work out the percentage difference between some prices of goods?

A good was £2.50 and is now £3.15, can't work out the percentage increase?

Numeracy is not maths.

the treasury do a lot of mathematical modelling a lot of which is fairly similar to the sort of modelling the physicists do for stuff like quantum theory.

an example of the sort of thing that they are doing might be here

https://www-thphys.physics.ox.ac.uk/people/AlexanderSchekochihin/A1/2014/A1ProblemSets_HT15.pdf
(this is physics based statistical modelling but the process is usually fairly similar for economic modelling)

there are example numeracy tests available online

eg hete

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/preparing-for-the-civil-service-verbal-and-numerical-tests

being able to pass a numeracy test in no way qualifies you to do the sort of mathematical modelling that the treasury do.

yes, many maths or physics or economics graduates need to go back and brush up on their basic numeracy after graduating because contrary to popular belief these degrees focus on mathematics and stats and mathematical modelling and you don’t spend your time calculating percentages.

I have a degree in economics from Cambridge and another undergraduate degree in maths from the open university and I taught maths for twenty years and I forget how to work out percentage increase

in the same way that sometimes English teachers spell things wrong but they still have sn English degree, or people can design nuclear bombs or nuclear fusion reactors but still not remember 6 x 7.