1 in 4 people have less than £100 in savings.

[cakeorwine]

And of those, 1 in 6 have no savings

moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/2022/11/07/one-in-six-uk-adults-have-no-savings/

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63517823

And it's only going to get worse with fuel bills and inflation.

It must be such a worry. And I bet that within that data, there is going to be wider variation (in general) with age, location and income (obviously)

Are pensions included in this?

I think many of us go through stages in life where we have no savings, or just a few scraps in the bank. For a lot of people it’s when you are in 20s, and just starting out or when you or partner are unemployed
I think if you are single there is also more chance- if married hopefully one of you has work if there doesn’t to make ends meet

i was in both those situations- ex was unemployed and then didn’t work due to mental health problems for last 15 years of our marriage. But as my career progressed we began to dig our way out of a financial hole and then we’re fortunate enough to benefit form an inheritance in my early 50s. I consider myself pretty well off now, and fortunate that even though divorce split our assets 8n half it was still enough for both of us to buy a small home and still have modest savings in bank along with pensions.

at any time they’ll be people like me n that 1:4 stat- it doesn’t always imply a hopeless or permanent state of insecurity.

id be more concerned about the stats and trends of people in debt - I think that’s a cleaner mark of cost of living crisis

What do they count as savings? I'd be surprised if 1/4 of the UK don't have access to £100. It might not be in a savings account but the money would be there for most.

I'd like breakdown by age and income

I wouldn’t say most, it’s still a minority with such small amounts of savings

Not shocking at all

Yep. Hardly shocking given the state of things. All my savings went on a 4 fold increase in bills.

No surprise there, I just had to borrow £10 off my son to put gas on my meter.
No I don't live above my means either (and I'll pay him back with interest. I'm not cruel.)

I’d also add it’d be interesting to see where this statistic is derived from. Even HMRC doesn’t hold that information….certainly no other banking institution would know this
so it’s likely to have come from a survey. How were the participants selected? Who is most likely to want to give a survey their current savings amount: those with nowt or those sitting on a healthy amount of savings. I’d be very wary of giving a random survey my total amount of savings as it would reek of being scammed for instance .

So I see they asked 3000 adults and extrapolated. Fair enough. But how were those 3000 selected and how many actually responded (response rate)? That info is not given here.

Not surprising. I’d also say a fair few live without saving and spend an ok salary. It’s mindset too.

Ive been there and its a horrible place. 10 years later I have money and still hold my breath when i pay for groceries because the horror of "sorry tihis card has declined" hasnt left me. Its why I try and quietly help those around me who are struggling now too. No one should be in the position of being unsure if they can feed their family.

I have 7 children and have at least 8k in savings that I worked my ass off for. I own my own home with no mortgage and self employed. So not all big families are hard done by.

I used to live pay cheque by pay cheque and had no savings but when I left my first husband I had nothing. Not even a bank account so I have spent the last 5 years being really sensible with my money and do have enough money to live comfortably.

So 75% of people have savings of over £100?

I'm amazed it's that high, tbh, especially during a cost of living crisis.

Do those stats refer to any form of saving or only cash savings? I max out my pension allowance and make the maximum overpayment on my mortgage every year but have very little in cash savings. I don’t think ‘cash in the bank’ is quite the barometer for financial health as people seem to think.

Thank you!

I don’t think it’s surprising. We have no savings to entirely normal to me. We had a very small amount but the increased mortgage rate, increased gas and electricity bills, increased food prices and the fact that our nursery has just put prices up by 20% has wiped them out.

Hooverphobe

Thanks for reminding me about the DWP Help to Save account, I meant to set it up ages ago. Just went and did it, takes literally 5 minutes. Just search for ‘Help to Save’ the system checks eligibility with your government gateway details, put in your bank details and tick to say if you want email reminders to pay in. Don’t even need to make a payment straight away. Hopefully will make things easier in a few years as DD gets older and has more expensive school trips etc.

Snap. The student loan system was much better under the tax credits than it is on uc. My degree enabled me to earn well enough to save regularly. Or at least it did until the COL shitshow so now I do two jobs to enable me to save.
Before that I spent every penny I earned and money I didn't have like a pp said. It wasn't on luxuries either.
I can see easily how people don't have savings. Especially with young children where you can't take on extra work.

The Op has linked to the articles around this so you could click on those and find out for yourself.

No it really wouldn't be. I've been poor. I do remember several occasions where I had to check coat pockets and under sofa cushions for coins.

We have this issue now and it is just because of the cost of everything. Our rent, fuel and food bills alone have gone up a lot and there just isn't that much left over. My partner is in a specific role that can only be done in certain places with a rota that changes weekly and I am disabled so neither of us can get second jobs etc.

We don't go on holidays or go out really either and we earn decent money. My friends who are on decent salaries also live pay check to pay check because rent takes up most of their wages and they can't afford to save a deposit. None of us got help from our parents and we all moved out at 18.

Some people would never have savings regardless, they spend every penny they earn, and go into debt spending money they don't earn

in many cases this is just spending on bills and food.

The ridiculously high cost of living cannot be ignored as a factor. More and more demands are being made on salaries that have remained stagnant. This is not because people buy too many treats.

I've got 33p in my savings account. I have a low income job, a small child, no maintenance from her father, there's nothing to save.

there are different people all over the uk.
plenty of posters on MN always talk about having X amount of savings, 3 months worth, for example
25% is not a large figure