Savings & debt Revisiting the State Pension age Resolution Foundation submission to the 2025 State Pension age review 1 November 2025 by Charlie McCurdy and Louise Murphy and David Willetts The previous Government proposed that the State Pension age should rise such that people spend “up to one-third” of adult life in receipt of the State Pension. Subsequent consideration of setting the State Pension age has been heavily influenced by this focus on life expectancy. However, there are many other factors to be considered in setting the State Pension age. It is very welcome that the terms of reference for the review include a range of other factors. One key consideration in this, as with all major policy decisions, is budgetary constraints. READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Unsung Britain Money on my mind Understanding the savings, debt and financial resilience of low-to-middle income families 10 September 2025 by Felicia Odamtten and Simon Pittaway This report finds falling consumer debt and modest improvements in saving, but rising arrears on priority bills like energy and Council Tax. It highlights the growing risks families face, and the urgent need for stronger support to build financial resilience. READ MORE
Universal Credit· Savings & debt Saving penalties Reforming the capital rules in Universal Credit 24 April 2025 by Molly Broome and Alex Clegg and Ed Pybus Means-tested benefits in Britain are built on the principle that individuals with significant financial resources should use those before turning to the state for help. That’s why wealth – as well as income – is assessed when determining eligibility and entitlement levels for means-tested support. But while income means-testing has been widely studied and debated, … Continued READ MORE
Pensions· Savings & debt Perfectly adequate? Revisiting pensions adequacy 20 years after the Pensions Commission 10 October 2024 by Molly Broome and Ian Mulheirn In 2002, the Labour Government established the Pensions Commission to review the UK’s private pensions system and make recommendations for reform. Twenty years on from the Commission’s landmark first report, the auto-enrolment pension regime it proposed has finally come to fruition, revolutionising pension coverage in the UK. But alongside the rollout of this pioneering policy, … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt Calculating a Living Pension: the 2024 update 4 September 2024 by Molly Broome This report sets out the method through which the Living Pension standard – a voluntary savings target that aims to help workers build up a pension pot that will provide enough income to meet basic everyday needs in retirement – is calculated by the Resolution Foundation, and overseen by the Living Wage Commission on behalf … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Tax· General Election 2024 Under triple lock and key What would a ‘triple-lock-plus’ policy look like? 29 May 2024 by Mike Brewer and Alex Clegg The Conservative Party has announced that, if re-elected, it intends to increase the personal allowance for pensioners in line with the triple lock – a policy which has been referred to as ‘triple lock plus’, or the ‘quadruple lock’. We’ve had a look at the costs and impacts of such a policy, and how it … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets Ineffective Savings Accounts 6 April 2024 by Molly Broome Today marks the beginning of a new ISA (Individual Savings Account) year with savers able to squirrel away up to £20,000 over the next year, with the returns being completely tax free. This is the Government’s flagship policy to promote saving – with around 12 million adults benefiting in 2021-22. But while the policy is … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets In too deep? The impact of the cost of living crisis on household debt 29 February 2024 by Felicia Odamtten and Simon Pittaway Hard economic times and rising interest rates have brought a renewed focus on household debt in recent years, with concerns that more and more families could find themselves overwhelmed by the burden of debt. So this briefing note takes a closer look at the use of consumer debt (such as credit cards, personal loans and … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets Precautionary tales Tackling the problem of low saving among UK households 12 February 2024 by Molly Broome and Ian Mulheirn and Simon Pittaway Families in Britain are confronted with what can be termed a ‘triple savings challenge’. This encompasses a lack of accessible ‘rainy day’ savings to cushion small cashflow shocks, inadequate precautionary saving to see people through large and unexpected income shocks, and insufficient saving to provide an adequate income in retirement. These three savings challenges are … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets ISA ISA Baby Assessing the Government’s policies to encourage household saving 16 January 2023 by Molly Broome and Adam Corlett and Jack Leslie The cost of living crisis highlights the long-standing issue of there being too many UK families with too little in savings. This is not a reflection of policy neglect: there have been many schemes over recent decades to encourage families to save more, covering both measures which cut taxes on savings returns and those which … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt Living pensions An assessment of whether workers’ pension saving meets a ‘living pension’ benchmark 28 July 2022 by Nye Cominetti and Felicia Odamtten Auto-enrolment has been successful in increasing pension saving participation among workers, especially those on lower incomes. However, given the improvements in take-up, the next pressing concern is whether workers are saving enough to deliver an adequate standard of living in retirement. A ‘Living pension’, parallel to the ‘Living wage’ could help us find the answer. … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Inequality & poverty· Wealth & assets Arrears fears The distribution of UK household wealth and the impact on families 20 July 2022 by Molly Broome and Jack Leslie The defining economic challenge for UK families at the moment is the cost of living crisis, rising inflation threatens living standards in the UK as real incomes fall. Owning wealth helps protect against the adverse effects, particularly for those who can rely on savings. Therefore, the current crisis has thrown wealth inequality into the spotlight. … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets Wealth on the eve of a crisis Exploring the UK’s pre-pandemic wealth distribution 7 January 2022 by Krishan Shah Today’s release of data from the Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) gives us a key insight into the financial position of families on the eve of the pandemic. It shows a picture of steady increases in aggregate wealth with households’ net worth standing at £15.2 trillion before the onset of Covid-19. Much is written about … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Labour market· Savings & debt· Covid-19 After shocks Financial resilience before and during the Covid-19 crisis 21 April 2021 by Maja Gustafsson and Kathleen Henehan and Fahmida Rahman and Daniel Tomlinson This report provides some of the first evidence on how the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on households has differed across countries. It studies the living standards-related factors that contribute to financial resilience (or the lack of it) both before and during Covid-19 in the UK, France and Germany. Overall, we find that pre-crisis vulnerabilities … Continued READ MORE
Universal Credit· Savings & debt· Welfare The debts that divide us Flash findings from a survey of families claiming Universal Credit 7 February 2021 by Mike Brewer and Karl Handscomb The surge in claims for Universal Credit (UC) when the pandemic first hit means that UC caseloads are now about twice as high as they were pre-pandemic, with over half of all single parents now in receipt of UC. About 60 per cent of the current caseload have newly-claimed UC during 2020, and the fraction … Continued READ MORE
Pensions· Savings & debt Building a living pension Closing the pension savings gap for low to-middle income families 23 January 2021 by David Finch and Cara Pacitti The Living Wage has been successful in providing a focus on the living standards of low-paid workers and increasing pay for many lower-paid employees. However, there has been much less of a focus on the future living standards of the same group. A ‘Living Pension’ could help us understand the savings required today to provide … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets The Missing Billions 3 January 2021 by Jack Leslie In this spotlight we discuss new research on the size and distribution of UK household wealth. Such wealth matters for living standards, economic opportunity and the ability of families to weather the coronavirus crisis. But it also matters because there is increasing interest in reforming wealth taxes in the UK, not least in the context … Continued READ MORE
Pensions· Labour market enforcement· Savings & debt Enrol up! The case for strengthening auto-enrolment enforcement 27 August 2020 by Hannah Slaughter This briefing note is part of a three-year programme of research exploring labour market enforcement generously funded by Unbound Philanthropy. It considers the extent of non-compliance with auto-enrolment, and whether there are ‘under-enrolment’ hotspots that require closer scrutiny. We estimate that around 3 per cent of eligible employees are not enrolled in a pension scheme … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Covid-19 Rainy days An audit of household wealth and the initial effects of the coronavirus crisis on saving and spending in Great Britain 22 June 2020 by George Bangham and Jack Leslie Families in Great Britain are faced with the most severe economic contraction in more than 100 years. Much of the immediate focus among policy makers has been on the size and distribution of falls in families’ incomes but household wealth, both savings and debt, will play a hugely important role in shaping how far families’ … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets An outstanding balance? Inequalities in the use – and burden – of consumer credit in the UK 15 January 2020 by Jubair Ahmed and Kathleen Henehan As the 2010s drew to a close, both policymakers and the press raised concerns about rising levels of UK household debt, with some warning it could soon bring about the next recession. Although household debt levels remain high in absolute terms, when compared against total household income they are substantially below levels reached during the … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Savings & debt· Political parties and elections· Wealth & assets· Inequality & poverty Who owns all the pie? The size and distribution of Britain’s £14.6 trillion of wealth 5 December 2019 by George Bangham and Jack Leslie While incomes have stagnated over the past decade, our national wealth has continued to boom. Data released today put UK households collective wealth at £14.6 trillion. But that total is far from equally distributed: the richest 10 per cent of households own almost half of the nation’s wealth having benefitted most from the recent wealth … Continued READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Housing An unhealthy interest? Debt distress and the consequences of raising rates 12 February 2018 by Matthew Whittaker Consumer borrowing has been surging over recent months, raising fears that we are storing up more debt-fuelled problems for tomorrow. This note digs into the numbers and focuses on who is taking out all the credit. We consider also how the profile of the UK’s household debt will stand up to increasing interest rates in the coming years. READ MORE
Living standards· Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Intergenerational Centre A welfare generation: lifetime welfare transfers between generations 5 February 2018 by George Bangham and David Finch and Toby Phillips This paper updates John Hills’ seminal research on life-cycle welfare transfers between generations. It estimates the extent to which past and future cohorts contribute to the welfare state via taxation and withdraw from its core pillars – education, health and social security – over the course of their lifetimes. READ MORE
Savings & debt· Wealth & assets· Housing· Intergenerational Centre The generation of wealth: asset accumulation across and within cohorts 20 June 2017 by Conor D’Arcy and Laura Gardiner Family wealth in 21st Century Britain is huge and growing, rising from £9.9 trillion before the financial crisis to over £11 trillion in the most recent data – more than six times our national income. Significant increases have come from house price rises in the 1990s and 2000s, followed by major growth in private pension wealth more … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Savings & debt· Pay· Intergenerational Centre The pay deficit: measuring the effect of pension deficit payments on workers’ wages 22 May 2017 by Matthew Whittaker and Brian Bell Across the UK economy, the share of overall employee compensation accounted for by non-wage elements such as employer pension contributions has increased substantially since 2000. This increase was driven in no small part by increased payments by employers to plug defined benefit deficits and coincided with a marked pre-crisis slowdown in pay growth, causing speculation … Continued READ MORE
