FCA study shows lack of savings and lack of trust in financial services

The FCA today released its Financial Lives survey of UK consumers’ attitudes to financial products.
20 June 2018

You can find it here.

  • 13% of people have savings of less than £10,000

  • 57% have no savings or savings of less than £5,000

  • 31% of people have no private pension provision

  • Just 6% of individuals have used regulated financial advice in the past year, and just 38% trust financial advisers

  • 23% of people have had an unsolicited approach about their pension or investment that might be a scam in the past 12 months

Laura Suter, personal finance analyst at AJ Bell, said:

“The fact that 13% of UK individuals have savings of less than £10,000, while 57% have savings below £5,000 or no savings at all shows how perilous many Brits finances are should they face a job loss or other costly life event.

“Just 6% of people have used regulated financial advice in the past year, highlighting the advice gap in the UK at the moment. Despite the work done over recent years by the industry and regulator, the British public are still wary of the financial services industry, with only a third thinking financial firms are honest and transparent, while just 40% say they are confident in the industry.

“The lack of private pension provision in the UK is also cause for concern, with 31% of individuals having no private arrangement. We would expect this number to increase in the coming years as auto-enrolment continues to loop more people into pension savings – but it’s surprising this figure isn’t already higher as 9.6 million* people have already been auto-enrolled.

“The data on pension scams, showing almost a quarter of respondents have had an unsolicited approach about their pension or investment that might be a scam in the past 12 months, shows how important it is for legislation like the pension cold calling ban to be pushed through parliament to stop people being robbed of their life savings by scammers.”

* Figures from the Pensions Regulator, April 2018

Follow us: