Spendthrift UK

Half do not put any money aside when they’re paid ... even the ones who are earning £90,000 a year!

BRITAIN is a nation of spendthrifts, with many having barely any savings and spending every penny they earn, data suggests.

Figures from NatWest bank reveal that 50 per cent of adults do not put anything aside when they are paid each month.

A further 25 per cent spend more than they earn and go into debt or raid any savings they do have to fund their lifestyles.

The research into 750,000 NatWest customers reveals that the problem is not just confined to low-earning households who genuinely struggle to get by, but is also common among the better-off.

NatWest found that whether a person saves money is mostly down to their financial habits and attitudes to cash.

The research is based on anonymised analysis of customer accounts and shows that customers on £90,000 a year are just as prone to spend it all and have zero savings as those on a much more modest £9,000 a year. The only group that consistently saved were top earners on more than £100,000 a year – under 5 per cent of the population.

Baroness Altmann, the former Conservative minister and financial services campaigner, said: ‘No economy can thrive without a good savings culture.

‘It’s been getting worse and there is no sign of it changing. This culture of easy come, easy go is likely to end in tears and it’s going to hurt ordinary people who are normally quite responsible but are being enticed into getting into debt.’ The NatWest figures, which are based on internal research to help with setting up its new digital bank Bo, are echoed elsewhere.

A study by debt charity Stepchange last week found that the number of middle-class families at risk of falling into debt is spiralling. It helped 9,510 people with net incomes above £40,000 last year, a rise of almost a fifth compared with three years ago.

Their average credit card debt was £21,091, while their average total outstanding debt, excluding mortgages, came to £38,164.

And the Money Charity said the average credit card debt per UK household was £2,609 in July this year. Last year research from the charity found that almost ten million households have no savings at all and 19.3million (71 per cent) have less than £10,000 in savings.

Sue Anderson, of Stepchange, said: ‘The most common reason for problem debt is that people have experienced some kind of income shock – a sudden reduction in earnings, or reduced hours for example. At times like these, many people would expect savings to be a lifeline, but current economic pressures can make it difficult to save. Instead, individuals have to live hand to mouth.’

She added that having even £1,000 of savings can almost halve the risk of experiencing problem debt. ‘Our research shows that, if every household had £1,000 of accessible savings, 500,000 fewer households would face problem debt,’ she said.

‘The Government needs to do more to encourage individuals to build up their financial resilience.’

‘Culture of easy come, easy go’