Nest Insight conference 2024
Sessions from this event are available to watch back on YouTube.
On Tuesday 16 July, for our eighth annual conference, we brought together thinktanks, academics, policy makers, employers, and others, to hear about all the latest findings from our research programmes, practical trials and beyond, and got a full picture of everything we’re hearing from the people and households seeking stability within a system that doesn’t always fit them. Together, we explored future directions.
Panel session
Automatic (auto) enrolment has vastly increased the numbers of working people who are saving for retirement. In particular, millions of low to middle income workers have joined the ranks of pensions savers. But there are growing concerns that many are still not saving enough – and others are missing out completely, because they’re excluded from auto enrolment. There are a growing number of calls to expand coverage and increase contributions.
The intention behind these policy proposals is clear: everyone should be encouraged to save enough to fund a comfortable retirement. But what about those people whose present-day financial realities are already far from comfortable? Is there a risk that increasing coverage or contributions will leave them worse off? Over recent months, Nest Insight and our collaborators have been working to understand how auto enrolment interacts with people’s wider financial lives. In this panel, the research team will share their findings, and highlight the challenges to designing an auto enrolment system that meets the needs of all workers.
Speakers
- Moderator: Alex Beer, Nuffield Foundation
- Matthew Blakstad, Nest Insight
- Armine Ghazaryan, Nest Insight
- John Gathergood, University of Nottingham
Panel session
In the years since the start of auto enrolment, volatile incomes and irregular pay have become the new normal for millions of people in the UK. Over the last year, Nest Insight and our partners at Aston University and Glasgow Caledonian University have used the Real Accounts programme to better understand how households on volatile incomes manage today and plan for their futures. In this panel, we’ll focus on the lived experience of households whose incomes spike and dip. We will discuss how they navigate systems that are built on the assumption of a regular, predictable pay, and how this shapes their options and goals for financial security in later life. The panellists will consider how current systems reproduce in retirement the challenges people face in working life, and explore the opportunities to create a system that moves towards more equitable outcomes for those on volatile pay.
Speakers
- Moderator: Sope Otulana, Nest Insight
- Andrew Blair, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
- Olga Biosca, Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU)
- Camilla Eggington, Nest
- Muna Yassin MBE, Rooted Finance
Keynote speech | Watch session
Discussions around financial resilience and security are often focused on individual and household level challenges and the need to address those from a social justice or individual responsibility perspective. But low financial resilience at a household level has broader macro-economic consequences. It introduces costs to the economy, for example through increased instance of money-related mental health issues driving healthcare costs and reduced productivity. As such, improving financial inclusion and giving access to tools to improve financial resilience can be an integral part of a broader growth agenda.
And this in turn is just one part of a broader economic argument about addressing exclusion and inequality. Unequal access to critical services such as high quality education and secure, affordable housing are not just social issues they are economic ones – rooted in historic wealth inequality but also with clear economic benefits if tackled.
Panel session
Through the course of the day, we will have explored how to balance people’s need to save enough for retirement with the financial challenges they face today; and explored the particular challenges for those on volatile incomes and the need for policy and product design that is inclusive of their needs. In this final panel, we’ll turn our attention to solutions: highlighting existing innovation in the provision of workplace financial wellbeing and thinking about how both the market, and, in particular, public policy around pensions and savings might evolve to ensure no-one is left behind in the pursuit of financial security.
Speakers
- Moderator: Will Sandbrook, Nest Insight
- Molly Broome, Resolution Foundation
- Mubin Haq, abrdn Financial Fairness Trust
- Shelley Morris, Living Wage Foundation
Watch the day’s live-streamed sessions:
The need to support people’s lifelong financial wellbeing has never been more acute – especially for those on low, moderate and volatile incomes. Policy-makers are examining new ways to build on the auto-enrolment tools which have successfully nudged people to save for their pension, in the awareness that a savings pot for everyday emergencies can be equally important as a pension for later life. At the same time, forward-thinking employers are finding new ways to support their workforce, and finance industry innovators are developing smarter ways to engage and enable people via the tools and products available to them at home and at work. A holistic and whole-life approach is needed, with policy-makers, the financial services industry, and employers all having a part to play. Read More