We cannot live without it and we worry if we don’t have enough. But for all the influence it exerts on our lives, we are rarely taught how to deal with money.

Many Jewish families are running into difficulty because of a basic lack of financial education, says Rabbi Benji Landau, director of support charity Mesila UK, which was set up two years ago.

He believes Mesila is plugging a gap in the communal infrastructure. Although there are services to help poor families with a Friday night chicken, or to help the unemployed find work, Mesila endeavours to reach those dubbed by Theresa May as Jams — “just about managing”.

That might be a family with an annual household income of £30,000.

But even one on considerably higher earnings might not find it easy, given the cost of housing in London and, for some, sending four or five children to an Orthodox independent school.

“There are three main symptoms,” Rabbi Landau explains. “The first is that you can’t get through the month without relying on some form of credit.

“The second is that you can get through the month but are ill-prepared for an unexpected expense — a washing machine that breaks down or a leaky roof.

“The third is that you can cope with an unexpected expense but you don’t have money to save and put by for the long-term, for example, to make a barmitzvah or marry off a child.”

Some families find it hard to resist the pressure to spend to keep up with the lifestyle of others.

“There is a perceived need to conform in order not to be regarded as a failure,” he says. And the availability of easy credit puts temptation in their way.

Mesila’s path to financial awareness consists of a course of six sessions over three-to-six months with one of its trained coaches. The cost to users is £225.

Rabbi Landau finds that many Mesila clients have not even worked out a basic budget.

As a first stage, families are encouraged to keep a detailed record of income and outgoings. They then move on to assess their financial priorities and formulate a plan of action, either to reduce spending or improve income — or both.

“I don’t think people are educated to be strategic about their finances,” he says. “People are so bogged down with getting through the week that they cannot take stock to think where they would like to be financially in a year’s time.”

It is not the charity’s role to tell people, for instance, that they are spending too much on a simchah. It is more to help them understand that if they want to budget for a simchah, they may have to cut back on holidays.

Mesila was actually founded in Israel 20 years ago to serve the Charedi sector but Rabbi Landau — who also works as associate minister of the Yeshurun Federation Synagogue in Edgware — stresses that the UK charity has a wider remit across the community.

As well as the courses, it offers one-off consultations and runs workshops. It served 15 families in its pilot year. It helped 70 last year and expects to advise 90 in 2018.

Mesila also promotes financial education in Jewish schools. In addition to an English language textbook produced by Mesila in Israel, the UK charity has developed a teaching resource for local use.

“We are making it easier than ever for schools to deliver our financial literacy programmes through pre-prepared lesson plans that allow teachers of almost any subject to teach relevant and engaging lessons.”