A landscape review of existing evidence

Looking across the research landscape, there’s a growing body of supportive evidence around workplace emergency saving. Increasingly, it’s being supplemented by on-the-ground research and evaluation of workplace savings models, but evidence gaps still remain.

In July 2021, we published a landscape review of existing evidence to:

  1. Summarise the evidence that led to us establishing a programme of research looking at workplace emergency saving and sidecar models.
  2. Update that evidence, including efforts made so far to evaluate the effectiveness of these programmes, and bring it together in one place, summarising the strength of the case for workplace emergency saving.
  3. Highlight areas where the evidence is either less positive or less conclusive, as the basis for our own ongoing work in this space, and to encourage others to contribute to the evidence base.

We hope that this paper will be useful for those in the industry who may be interested in expanding coverage of workplace emergency savings initiatives, and to policymakers considering whether and how future policy interventions might support increased emergency saving.

Read the report: Workplace emergency saving: A landscape review of existing evidence (PDF)

Programme partners


BlackRock is a global investment manager serving the UK market for more than 30 years with a purpose to help more and more people experience financial well-being. BlackRock’s Emergency Savings Initiative is made possible through philanthropic support from the BlackRock Foundation. The initiative brings together partner companies and non-profit financial health experts to make saving easier and more accessible for low- to moderate-income people across the US and UK, ultimately helping more people to establish an important financial safety net. For more information, visit: blackrock.com/corporate/about-us/social-impact


The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) vision is: ‘everyone making the most of their money and pensions’. MaPS is an arm’s-length body committed to providing access to the information and guidance people across the UK need to make effective financial decisions over their lifetimes. For more information, visit maps.org.uk

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading financial services firm based in the United States of America (“U.S.”), with operations worldwide. JPMorgan Chase had $4.0 trillion in assets and $285.9 billion in stockholders’ equity as of March 31, 2022. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management. Under the J.P. Morgan and Chase brands, the Firm serves millions of customers in the U.S., and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients globally. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at jpmorganchase.com

Delivery partners

Salary Finance’s mission is to help millions become financially healthier and happier. They do this by partnering with employers to provide a holistic suite of salary-linked employee financial wellbeing benefits. Their comprehensive, award-winning benefits offering currently reaches over 4 million employees within 550+ of the UK’s largest employers including Tesco, Royal Mail, BT, the NHS and 20% of the FTSE 100. For more information on Salary Finance’s solutions for helping employees to get out of debt, start saving, advance their pay, protect their future and learn better financial habits, visit salaryfinance.com

Yorkshire Building Society is a mutual organisation, owned by its members and customers. It’s driven by social purpose and here to serve its members. It’s proud of the difference it makes to people’s lives by helping them to achieve their goals. It’s here to create long-term member value, help people have a place to call home and support them towards greater financial wellbeing. It believes that helping people with these goals is how it can make the biggest contribution to society. For more information visit: ybs.co.uk

  • Gather as much insight as possible, along with real-world practical examples, drawing in material and evidence from a range of different types of sources.
  • Bring to light material which either directly explores saving through the workplace in some form or contributes to an understanding of the underlying premises that gave rise to our interest in the topic.
  • Identify where the evidence is more challenging or where there are clear evidence gaps.

We conducted desk research and a literature review:

  • The primary search terms used included ’workplace savings’, ’payroll emergency saving’, ‘workplace liquid savings’, ’payroll savings schemes’ and ‘salary deducted savings’, along with variations on those and with the addition of the term ‘research’.
  • We included a diverse collection in our review, such as grey literature, as well as articles showcasing and publicising initiatives being launched by employers and their partners.
  • To supplement our search, we also reached out to our network of academic and research partners in the UK and the US, and included anecdotal insights.