Latest ‘Tackling the Savings Gap’ White Paper just released

We’re delighted to share with you the latest research findings from our ongoing Tackling the Savings Gap campaign. This covers UK personal savings and debt data for the first quarter of 2015.

Part of a series of quarterly surveys, Tackling the Savings Gap is a barometer for the UK’s attitude towards savings, investments and debt. The data is sourced from an independent survey of over 2,000 UK adults of all age ranges, socio-economic backgrounds and from all corners of the country.

Highlights of our research

• 54% of Britons are currently saving nothing for retirement.
• A 35-year-old starting to save for a pension now and hoping to retire at 60 needs to save £52 a day to get a pension of £23,457 per year. However, savers are currently only putting £9.50 aside per day, on average.
• Despite the recent pension reforms, only 16% of people say they plan to change the way they access their pension.
• With the general election just round the corner, 31% of people don’t understand what any of the main parties plan to do for savers.
• 76% of respondents rated their understanding of personal finance as ‘Satisfactory’ or worse, while 81% want more financial education to be provided.

This edition of Tackling the Savings Gap is the last before the general election on 7th May. No matter which political party forms the next government, it’s clear that they must make simplifying savings and providing better financial education a priority.

To help combat the UK’s Savings Gap, the True Potential Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance and the Open University are creating a series of free personal finance courses for the general public. The first course, Managing My Money, has seen over 37,000 registered learners since launch and a second module, Managing My Investments, opens on 11th May.

Read the latest Tackling the Savings Gap White Paper >

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