Most people are one missed payslip away from trouble.
A savings buffer is the difference between a bad month and a bad year. For most adults that buffer does not exist. This page sets out how thin the margin has become, why saving is out of reach and what happens the moment income stops.
adults have no savings to fall back on if their income stops.
The buffer everyone is told to build has quietly disappeared.
Adults who could not cover their essential costs for a month if their income stopped tomorrow.
The size of unexpected bill that would push a typical household into borrowing or arrears.
Median time savings would cover essentials for the people who do have something put aside.
People who say there is nothing left at the end of the month to save, however carefully they budget.
Four reasons the savings gap keeps widening.
Fixed costs rose faster than pay
Rent, energy and food take a larger share of income than a decade ago. Saving is what gets cut when the essentials leave nothing behind.
Income arrives unevenly
Shift work, contracts and variable hours make a monthly savings habit almost impossible to hold, so buffers never get the chance to build.
Nobody is taught how to start
Saving is treated as common sense rather than a skill. Most people are never shown how much to hold, where to hold it or how to rebuild it.
Emergencies are treated as credit events
When a bill lands, the default answer offered is borrowing. Interest then eats the money that would have become next month's savings.
Saving is simple when there is something left to save.
The people with the least room are the ones most likely to face an emergency, and the ones who pay the most to get through it.
- Renters71%Renters: 71%, say housing costs leave nothing to put aside at the end of the month
say housing costs leave nothing to put aside at the end of the month
- Single parents68%Single parents: 68%, say an unexpected bill would mean borrowing or going without
say an unexpected bill would mean borrowing or going without
- Under 35s64%Under 35s: 64%, have less than one month of essential costs saved
have less than one month of essential costs saved
- Shift and contract workers59%Shift and contract workers: 59%, say uneven income makes a regular savings habit impossible to keep
say uneven income makes a regular savings habit impossible to keep
No savings is not a budgeting failure. It is a life with no margin.
Average interest and fees paid over a year by households covering an emergency on credit rather than savings.
How long people delay moving, retraining or leaving a bad job because there is no buffer to land on.
People still repaying a single unexpected bill more than twelve months after it landed.
Figures are drawn from national household finance surveys, financial resilience research and our own community research across the Equity House network. Where sources disagree we quote the more conservative number. We update this page as new data lands.
We are making the first buffer reachable, showing people how much to hold, how to start on an uneven income and how to rebuild it after an emergency without turning to credit.