An employer-led group has established the National Coalition for Workplace Savings as part of the government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy.

The coalition aims to help workers build up emergency savings by increasing access to workplace savings schemes and encouraging people to adopt a regular saving habit.

Its work is guided by a steering group of employers, associations, charities, and the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, chaired by the Co-op.

Over the coming years, the coalition will seek to encourage more employers to implement and increase participation in workplace savings schemes, and will engage with savings providers that are innovating to achieve greater impact.

The coalition has been convened by the Money and Pensions Service (Maps), Nest Insight, and The Investing and Saving Alliance (TISA).

Its research showed that one in 10 working adults had no savings at all in 2024, while a further 20 per cent had less than £1,000 in savings.

"Too many people have little to no savings, leaving them vulnerable to financial shocks and the stress of having no safety net to fall back on,” commented Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Lucy Rigby.

“That’s why we are supporting employers to boost their workforces’ wellbeing with payroll savings schemes, through the government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy.

“This work is underpinned by a new national coalition of employers and backed by a regulatory statement from the Financial Conduct Authority.

“Over the coming years, I hope to see more employers implementing workplace savings schemes and more employees benefiting from the peace of mind that savings can bring, and I look forward to working with the coalition on this."

PensionBee director of public affairs, Becky O’Connor, added: “For too long, employer involvement in helping employees to improve their finances has been a missing link. Reams of industry data suggest that provision of a pension is only the first step to what can be done to help staff.

“The same behavioural principle that transformed pension saving through auto-enrolment, making saving the default rather than a decision people have to actively make, can work just as well for short-term savings.

“Employer-led savings schemes bring the decisions to where people are - their workplace - and make it easy for people to engage, creating a culture that normalises saving.

"A coalition of employers of this kind is exactly the kind of initiative that can lead to an improved outlook for household resilience, both short and long term.

“The more normal workplace saving becomes, in all its forms, the better equipped people will be to weather financial shocks and build towards a more secure future.”

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