According to ABI’s analysis almost half of British consumers will make it a New Year’s resolution to save more money for the future. And over 50% say they are more likely to make that resolution given the current economic climate. Populus surveyed 1,040 UK adults on 13-14 December 2008 – 47% said they would be making it a New Year’s resolution to save more, and 51% said that the current economic climate made it more likely that they would resolve to save more.
Also research show that over 13 million working people are not saving enough for their retirement, the ABI is calling for Government action to help people change their savings behaviour for the better. ABI considers that enabling automatic enrolment into good workplace pensions could help people as well as increasing the Individual Savings Account (ISA) limit to 10,800 a year.
“Our research shows that many people in Britain want to save more for the future – it’s good news that even in this difficult economic climate, public attitudes are shifting towards saving,” says Stephen Haddrill, director general, ABI. “This is not before time, as ABI research shows that around half of the working population aren’t saving enough for their retirement.”
“Right now, nearly five million employees could be benefiting from free money into their workplace pension from their employer and the Government. Auto-enrolment would ensure that those people, and many future employees, can start building up decent pension savings for a comfortable retirement.”
“People want to save more – and the Government has a golden opportunity to help them by increasing ISA limits and making ‘auto-enrolment now’ its New Year’s resolution.”
L.D.