36% of UK adults did not save or invest last quarter

The first quarterly report revealed a similar figure (37%), which suggests that it’s a sustained trend.

On average, people saved or invested £232 each month in the last quarter.

The research also revealed:

• men saved significantly more than women over the period (£296 a month, compared with £170)
• 25- to 34-year-olds put away the most over the period (averaging £278 a month), followed by those aged between 35 and 44 (£260 a month)
• young adults, aged between 18 and 24, put away the least (£154 a month).

Although the research revealed that adults believed they were not saving enough (52% agreed, 18% disagreed), only 20% expected to be able to save more over the next 12 months.

Both savers and non-savers were less incentivised to put money away due to the low returns on cash accounts; 43% said that low returns meant that it was not worth saving in cash.

More than one in 10 (12%) said they would rather borrow instead of saving to achieve life goals, particularly Londoners (26%) and those aged between 25 and 34 (also 26%).

“This research highlights a serious concern: a worrying number of people are failing to make any provision for the future,” said Peter Behrens, chief operating officer and co-founder of RateSetter.

“This not only means that they risk being caught out by an unexpected bill, but also miss out on long-term returns.

“It’s easy to empathise with the 43% of people who feel that low returns mean that it’s not worth saving in cash, but there are other options.

“That’s reflected in our experience: we’ve seen a steady rise in the number of people investing via our platform, earning returns of around 4% in exchange for taking on some risk.”