Savings and the self-employed
27 March 2018
An innovation event being held by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), Department for Work and Pensions and HM Treasury, is exploring ways that technology could make it easier for the self-employed to save for retirement.
Nearly 5 million people across Britain now work for themselves, a number that has increased by 50% since 2000, but only 19% of the self-employed are saving into a personal pension. There is no equivalent of auto-enrolment for the self-employed.
Teams will be set the challenge of developing practical solutions and interventions, focusing on the role technology and developments such as the Pensions Dashboard and Open Banking could play in helping the self-employed to build greater financial resilience for later life.
Yvonne Braun, Director of Policy, Long-term Savings and Protection, ABI, said:
“People of all sorts of ages, skill levels, backgrounds and professions work for themselves – there is no typical self-employed person. The one thing they do all have in common though is the need to prepare for their retirement and ensure they have a way to pay for it.
Auto-enrolment has brought thousands more workers into pension saving and I’m excited to see what this week’s event can come up with to offer similar security to the self-employed.”