After over 3 years of research, analysing over 1 million admin data points, 4 big surveys and hours of in depth interviews, I am so proud to have published the full results of our opt-out payroll savings trials at Bupa, Co-op and SUEZ UK this week.
We’ve seen savings participation increase dramatically. We’ve heard over and again from new savers of the big impacts this small change has had in their lives. Greater resilience, control, peace of mind, confidence… We’ve learned that this approach is popular and inclusive, reaching people who haven’t saved before or who have struggled to do so previously.
To learn more, you can now read the report ‘Easier to save’ here :
At our launch event we heard from the Economic Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds MP who talked about the cross-cutting relevance of emergency savings within the work to develop a national financial inclusion strategy, and reinforced the connection between supporting financial resilience at a household level and boosting inclusive economic growth at the macro level.
In our panel Baroness jeannie drake CBE, Mike Brewer, Sarah McKenzie and Femi Adigun explored the opportunities and challenges of scaling the approach we’ve piloted, and the potential to boost UK savings inclusion so that millions more households who currently lack any kind of savings buffer could start to build greater financial security.
At this point, with such compelling and exceptional results, it would be easy to pretend that this was always the destination, with a project plan fully mapped out to get us here. The reality of an innovation journey is of course not that! When we started out, we didn’t know if anyone would be up for it, if we could make it work in the real world, how employees would respond, if we could get the data… it’s been a messy snakes and ladders board, with both set backs and moments of luck.
I’m so grateful therefore to the growing community of collaborators who have been with us along the way – it takes a village to raise a… real-world behavioural research trial! To our trial partners Michelle Sutton ChMCIPPdip, FHEA 🟡🔴/🟢🔵 (I will never forget our first conversation!), Lisa Thomas and all at SUEZ, Alex Henley, Alison Scowen, Nick Speight MBE and Claire Costello at Co-op, Katie Duxbury and Helen Spurr at Bupa; Roger Shelton and Ian Sibbald at Transave, Emily Trant, Callum M. and team Wagestream. To our programme partners The BlackRock Foundation and the Money and Pensions Service and our strategic partners BlackRock, JPMorganChase and Nest pensions. To our academic partners Sarah Holmes Berk, Jay Garg, David Laibson, James J. Choi and John Beshears. To everyone else who has advised and encouraged us. To the tenacious and dedicated Nest Insight team, with special and huge thanks to the fabulous Dr Emma Stockdale without whose exceptional work we would not be here.
