Panel session | 11am – 12pm

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 | 12:15 – 1:30pm

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 | 2:45pm – 3:35pm

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.

Thank you and close | 3:35 – 4:45pm

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

Thank you and close | 4:50pm – 5pm

Speakers

• Will Sandbrook, Nest Insight

Panel session | Watch session

A growing number of employers are considering the role they could play in supporting their employees’ financial wellbeing. Several products are on offer to address the low levels of financial resilience amongst UK workers. Options including payroll saving, earned wage access and loans are available from a range of different providers, and some employers are building their own solutions. During this panel discussion, we will step back to consider questions including what are the most pressing financial needs that low- to moderate-income workers have? What are the opportunities for employers to support their workers? What does a good financial wellbeing provision look like, and how effective are the solutions on offer? Nest Insight will share some learnings from recent research supported by JPMorgan Chase looking specifically at earned wage access and employer sponsored loans.

Speakers

• Introduction: Stephanie Mestrallet, JP Morgan Chase Foundation
• Moderator: Sarah O’Connor, the Financial Times (FT)
• Sope Otulana, Nest Insight
• Sam O’Sullivan, Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP)
• Matt Day, John Lewis

Panel session | Watch session

Supporting people to secure an adequate income in retirement is the number one priority for the pensions industry. Yet, many of the traditional ways to measure an individual’s financial preparedness for retirement ignore a significant potential cost: housing. Patterns of home ownership in the UK are changing, and many more people in future generations will either be renting or paying mortgages into and through retirement, so the traditional assumption in adequacy models that housing costs in retirement fall to zero is surely not sustainable. What does this mean for pensions policy and for the industry? Is it just another reason to call for higher contributions, or do we need to think more innovatively about the role we can play in supporting people on the path to home ownership? In this panel we will discuss issues relating to the measurement of adequacy in relation to housing costs, and start to discuss the potential for, and challenges relating to, innovations within pension system design that could help solve the challenge.

Speakers

• Moderator: Karen Barker, abrdn Financial Fairness Trust (AFFT)
• Liz Fernando, Nest
• Paul Cullum, Frontier Economics
• Damon Hopkins, Broadstone

Keynote speech | Watch session

Changes in pension systems around the world mean that, increasingly, the onus falls on individuals to work out how much they should be saving for the long term. In the UK, considerable thought has gone into the question of how much any given individual should save to be confident of a retirement income that’s high enough to support their consumption needs in later life. Yet this ‘adequacy’ question is generally framed in narrow pensions terms, without considering the short- and medium-term impact that increased retirement contributions might make on the household balance sheet. With living costs on the rise, it’s far from easy for a household to balance short-term needs with long-term savings goals. And their consumption needs in retirement will in part depend on the choices they may make today. Given the complex interactions between present and future financial health, how can industry and policy-makers help people make informed choices about how they allocate limited assets? Is it possible to develop a more nuanced view of an ‘adequate’ level of savings, that takes into account the household’s total financial position, today and into the future?

Speakers

• Moderator: Matthew Blakstad, Nest Insight
• Taha Choukhmane, MIT Sloan School of Management

Thank you and close | Watch session

Speakers

• Gemma Gooch, BlackRock