Pensions Future proofing How worried should people be about their pensions? The key takeaways from the Pensions Commission’s interim report. 26 May 2026 by Mike Brewer and Parth Pandya This article was initially published on our Substack. For many, their pension is simply too boring, and too distant, to think about. But the Government should take credit for thinking about what living standards might look like in 2050, especially given we don’t even know who will be Prime Minister next month. For those of you … Continued READ MORE
Monetary policy· Savings & debt Why your mortgage bill might rise as rates fall Everything you need to know about 2026's mortgage mystery 15 January 2026 by Simon Pittaway This article was original shared on the Resolution Foundation’s Substack. I’ve been writing about rising mortgage rates for some time now. During that time, mortgage interest has become an increasingly big deal. Last year, around 8 million British households stumped up a total of £65 billion in mortgage interest – almost double the £35 billion … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Welfare Is welfare spending ‘out of control’? 25 November 2025 by Alex Clegg The run up to this Budget has seen more than its fair share of rumours, leaks, briefings and counter-briefings. But if there’s one thing we know for sure, it is that tax rises are coming. The public finances have deteriorated since the Spring Statement; there have been high profile U-turns on cuts to Winter Fuel … Continued READ MORE
Pensions· Savings & debt· Wealth & assets It’s time to complete Britain’s pensions revolution 21 July 2025 by Molly Broome Today’s announcement of a new Pensions Commission marks a welcome return to long-term thinking about retirement. The original Commission, launched more than two decades ago, laid the groundwork for auto-enrolment, which has enabled millions more people to save for later life. It sits up there with the National Minimum Wage on the pantheon of truly … Continued READ MORE
Pensions· Savings & debt The triple lock has been far more damaging than I ever feared The state pension has risen three times faster than predicted when the policy was introduced 18 July 2025 by David Willetts This article was originally published in The Times. The strained state of Britain’s public finances is already a big concern. These pressures are set to grow rather than dissipate over the coming decades. This week the Office for Budget Responsibility published a sobering report that set out some of the key long-term trends pushing up … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt Consumer debt in the UK is down 10%. The bad news? Utility bill arrears are up Britons have been borrowing less since Covid, but people on lower incomes are falling behind on the rent 3 March 2024 by Torsten Bell It’s important to worry about the right things. Interest rates are up, sparking worries about our debts – in my case, the mortgage. Consumer debt (credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans) is surging, we’re told. But the truth is, consumer debt levels are down. New Resolution Foundation research shows them at their lowest since at least … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Intergenerational Centre Britain’s inheritance boom could further decouple people’s retirement age from their state pension age It’s inheritance and where you live which are the barriers to retirement 31 January 2023 by Molly Broome The UK’s state pension age is going up – and perhaps faster than expected. The age at which you can draw the state pension is due to rise from 66 to 67 by 2028. And the Government is now reportedly considering bringing forward the rise to 68 from 2046 to the 2030s, as part of … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets Expand the Help to Save scheme to help the poorest 24 January 2023 by Jack Leslie It would be hard to miss the fact that the UK economy is currently in bad shape. A 40-year high in inflation, falling incomes and ever more industrial action are just some of the features of today’s Britain. But these problems have been made worse by a too often overlooked issue: many families do not … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Housing A loan scheme for renters could stop tenants from being made homeless 18 February 2021 by Lindsay Judge The protracted length of the coronavirus crisis has led to rent arrears reaching twice the level observed going into the crisis. In January 2021, we estimate that over 750,000 families were behind with their housing payments, 300,000 of which contained dependent children. Before the pandemic hit, many families spent a high share of their income … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Covid-19 In this coronavirus crisis, do families have enough savings to make ends meet? 3 April 2020 by George Bangham In Britain two crises are unfolding in parallel, while policy makers strive to keep count. On the first – the public health crisis – they are all too aware how many people are losing their lives due to the virus. On the second crisis – the economic one – the data is more limited, whether … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Intergenerational Centre More ambition, less risk – building on the success of auto-enrolment 4 April 2019 by David Willetts and Laura Gardiner We often find it harder to celebrate policy successes than decry policy failures. So you might have missed a policy success which we are marking this week. We are about to have completed the successful initial rolling-out of automatic enrolment into occupational pension saving. Millions of employees will enjoy higher living standards in retirement as … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Welfare· Intergenerational Centre Now’s not the time for auto-pilot 6 April 2018 by Matthew Whittaker and Stephen Clarke Straightforward policy successes are a rare achievement in government and need celebrating when they arrive, lest we forget that policy matters. The recent sizeable gains the UK has made on private pension saving as a result of the introduction of auto-enrolment are therefore a clear cause for cheer. But challenges remain, starting with the increase … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Intergenerational Centre Auto-enrolment has had a great beginning. But will it have a happy ending? 18 December 2017 by David Finch We hear a lot about good policy plans gone wrong (Universal Credit springs to mind) for obvious reasons. But we ought to listen (and learn) from successes too. Auto-enrolment into workplace pension savings is the obvious candidate for this cheery policy tale, though the story has only just begun. Over nine million have signed up … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Demographics· Savings & debt What could the latest life expectancy projections mean for the State Pension Age? 5 December 2017 by David Finch At the end of last week, the ONS published the latest future projections showing its best estimate of how long we can expect to live. We don’t automatically associate our living standards with factors like health or how many years of life we may have. But just like income, life expectancy is an important indicator … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt The Bank has increased borrowing costs, but is personal debt bubbling over? 5 November 2017 by Matthew Whittaker Following a period of double digit growth in consumer credit over the last year or so, there have been some concerns about the reappearance of a debt bubble in the UK economy. In truth though, household borrowing currently resembles less of a bubble and more of two day-old helium balloon: partially deflated and looking worse … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt Time to put away the credit card 13 July 2017 by Toby Phillips The squeeze is on. National accounts data last month confirmed that household incomes have been falling for the last three quarters. Yesterday’s labour market statistics showed that wages continue to lose ground to inflation. And today new survey data from the Bank the England shows that credit availability is tightening. Today’s survey is the latest … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets Time for a re-rewind on debt? 28 March 2017 by Matthew Whittaker Just like Craig David, debt made something of a comeback in 2016. Having peaked at 160 per cent on the eve of the 2008 financial crisis, household debt as a share of income fell to 140 per cent by the end of 2015. Successive increases in the first three quarters of 2016 took the ratio … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets Automatic success for the people? 3 March 2017 by David Finch Political commentators love a good high-profile policy disaster. Think NHS IT systems or the poll tax. But successes happen too. Usually they’re small scale, making incremental improvements, often for specific parts of the population. But just sometimes they’re a really big deal – fundamentally changing outcomes for millions of people. When such victories come along, … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Prices & consumption Consumer borrowing is up. But will it last, and should we be concerned? 12 January 2017 by Matthew Whittaker Consumer borrowing is increasing at its fastest rate in 11 years. As the chart below shows, outstanding debts (excluding mortgages and student loans) rose by 10.8 per cent in November 2016 – faster than any time since October 2005. This surge has inevitably prompted concerns that the UK is heading back down the path of … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Intergenerational Centre Young and self-ish? Who’s saving for their retirement and who isn’t 7 October 2016 by Conor D’Arcy When we worry about the pay of workers today, two groups often stand out as being hard hit – the young and the precariously employed, particularly self-employed workers that often work in the so-called gig economy. Concern for these groups stretches beyond the present. After all, low pay and a lack of saving makes it … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets Own a LISA? First impressions of the Lifetime ISA 18 March 2016 by Adam Corlett In the build-up to the Budget, the Chancellor backed away from significant changes to the pension tax system for now, despite the strong case for some reform. This was a relief for some and a disappointment for others. But given that he had aimed to save money, it’s a surprise that he’s nonetheless introduced a … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt Help to Save: an idea whose time has come (again) 14 March 2016 by Daniel Tomlinson ‘Support for savers’ was meant to be one of the key Budget themes. Until recently it seemed likely that the Chancellor would be announcing a radical shake-up of pension saving. But in the face of fierce of opposition from industry, the media and many backbench MPs, the Treasury has now ruled out any changes to … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Savings & debt· Tax Nice try, but no cigar: the Chancellor and pension tax relief 5 March 2016 by Torsten Bell We’ve known for some time that George Osborne wants to make radical changes to how the UK’s tax system encourages people to save for their pension. Yet we’ve now learnt that his preferred change is not going to happen. Here’s why he was right to agitate for reform (even if not for the particular change he … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets Why defusing the debt bomb means dealing with distributions 26 December 2015 by Matthew Whittaker Following the near-collapse of the global financial system back in 2008, it appeared only a matter of time before the UK’s household debt time bomb went boom. In aggregate, households owed just shy of 1.6 times their total income, up from a ratio of just over 1 at the start of the century. That there … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Macroeconomic policy To avoid squeezed households struggling, we must beware of premature interest rate rises 6 August 2014 by Matthew Whittaker Thursday’s interest rate announcement from the Monetary Policy Committee is unlikely to generate many headlines. “Bank does nothing for 65th straight month” is hardly a circulation-booster, even during silly season. But we can expect plenty of speculation alongside the announcement that the consensus among MPC members on holding rates will have been broken for the first time since … Continued READ MORE
