MPs in the All Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Resilience (APPG) have called for the government to introduce an auto-enrolment process for self-employed workers. The APPG argues that auto-enrolment would enable freelance workers to put more savings into pension schemes.
The Financial Resilience APPG was established following the COVID-19 pandemic to enable MPs to discuss and recommend ways the government could improve financial resilience. The new report features several recommendations that the APPG believes would improve the finances of people in the UK.
Among the recommendations, the APPG calls for the government to work to improve public awareness of finances and to seek to improve the take-up of government services including Pension Wise and MoneyHelper.
The APPG also recommends that the government work with non-profits as consultants and for financial guidance and that the government work more together with the financial services industry to develop flexible savings products for those looking to save for later life.
Shaun Bailey MP, co-chair of the Financial Resilience APPG, said: “In the past there has been a focus on how to lift people out of difficult financial situations, but little has been done to understand why people end up there. What this report does is uncovers just how close large groups of the population are to experiencing a crisis in their personal finances.”
“It is particularly important in revealing that those who we may commonly define as ‘comfortable’ or ‘middle-class’ can be one negative life event away from struggling to meet essential costs. However, the findings in this report also support an emerging consensus around the pandemic; that a great polarisation existed in the saving and spending capabilities of those across the income spectrum.”
