Early indicator estimates from the Wealth and Assets Survey: attitudes towards saving for retirement, automatic enrolment into workplace pensions and financial situation, July 2016 to December 2017

• 12% of respondents in the period July 2016 to December 2017 reported that they always or most of the time ran out of money at the end of the week or month, or needed a credit card or overdraft to get by in the past year; this was unchanged from the period July 2014 to June 2016.

• 44% of respondents in the period July 2016 to December 2017 reported that they would not be able to make ends meet for longer than three months if they lost the main source of income coming into their household; this fell slightly from 46% in July 2014 to June 2016.

• 48% of respondents aged 16 to 24 years in the period July 2016 to December 2017 reported that they would not be able to make ends meet for longer than one month if they lost the main source of income coming into their household; this was compared with 26% of all respondents.

• 8% of respondents in the period July 2016 to December 2017 reported that they would be unable to meet an unexpected major expense equivalent to or greater than a month’s income.

• 44% of employees in the period July 2016 to December 2017 thought employer pensions were the safest way to save for retirement.

• 42% of the self-employed in the period July 2016 to December 2017 thought investing in property was the safest way to save for retirement.

• In the period July 2016 to December 2017, 17% of those aged 16 to 24 years felt that they knew enough about pensions to make decisions about saving for retirement; this was compared with 42% of all non-retired respondents.

• 63% of eligible employees were aware that they had been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension.

• Of all eligible employees who reported that they had not been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension, 91% were already enrolled into a pension scheme.

The Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) is a longitudinal survey carried out by Office for National Statistics (ONS), which aims to address gaps identified in data about the economic well-being of households in Great Britain. It gathers information on, among other things: level of assets, savings and debt; saving for retirement; how wealth is distributed among households or individuals; and factors that affect financial planning.

Respondents are questioned every two years with each two-year period forming a “wave”. Wave 1 covered the period July 2006 to June 2008, with subsequent waves carrying on continuously from this date. Wave 6 of the survey started in July 2016.

The previous edition of this report, published on 5 February 2018, provided early estimates from the full datasets for waves 3, 4 and 5 (covering the period July 2010 to June 2016) plus results from the first 12 months of wave 6 (July 2016 to June 2017). The main results from wave 5 were published on 1 February 2018. This bulletin now extends results to 18 months of wave 6 (July 2016 to December 2017) and is intended to provide more timely metrics and add value before the main delivery of data.

Early indicators are derived from simple frequency counts of variables included in the questionnaire. They are produced before any imputation is carried out. Imputation is crucial to the estimation of wealth measures, therefore, at present, measures of wealth will not be provided. The questions best suited to be used as early indicators are “opinion” questions or those relating to “ownership” of a particular asset. The set of indicators included in this release is not fixed and will be varied over time, considering the views and priorities of main users.

Unless otherwise stated, questions were asked of all non-proxy eligible adults (those aged 16 years or over and not in full-time education who responded in person to the questionnaire). In places we refer to “non-retired adults”; more accurately this should read all adults aged under 40 years and adults aged 40 years and over who are not retired, that is, we would include anyone aged under 40 years who is retired (for example, medically retired) – but these numbers would be very small.

Full weighting of respondents has been applied to the data in this release to take account of the varying sampling probabilities and attrition between waves. For waves 4 (July 2012 to June 2014), 5 (July 2014 to June 2016) and 6 (July 2016 to December 2017), the non-proxy respondents have been grossed up to recognised population totals. For wave 3 (July 2010 to June 2012), the weighting grossed all respondents, including proxies, to recognised population totals. While this makes relatively little difference to the percentages in each category, it impacts on the weighted frequencies in the accompanying data tables.

Data that have been provided in previous early indicators articles, but are not included in this instalment, can be found in the accompanying dataset and have been updated with figures from the latest six months.

No significance testing has been carried out on these data.

We asked respondents how often they ran out of money at the end of the week or month, or needed a credit card or overdraft to get by in the past year. They can then indicate frequency at which this happens, ranging from always to never.

In the period July 2016 to December 2017, 12% of respondents reported that they always or most of the time ran out of money at the end of the week or month, or needed to use a credit card or overdraft to get by in the past year. This was unchanged from the period July 2014 to June 2016.

Most regions saw a fall in the number of people reporting this. The region with the highest percentage of people was the North East, with 20%. This rose from 15% in July 2014 to June 2016, which was also the largest percentage point rise for any region. The region with the lowest percentage was Scotland, with 8%. This was similar to the period July 2014 to June 2016 (9%).

When looking at how this varies by age, we can see that a higher proportion of younger people report always or most of the time running out of money at the end of the week or month. Figure 2 shows that 18% of those aged 16 to 24 years and 16% of those aged 25 to 34 years reported this, whereas this figure was 9% for those aged 55 to 64 years and 3% for those aged 65 years and over. However, the proportion of those aged 16 to 24 years who reported this fell from 22% in July 2014 to June 2016, which was the biggest fall of any age group between the two periods.

We can also see that the proportion of those reporting always or most of the time running out of money at the end of the week or month has followed a downward trend for most age groups.

How people would meet an unexpected major expense can be an indicator of their financial security. For example, whether or not they would use their existing financial assets, or if they would have to find the money through some other means. We define “major expense” as being at least as large as a person’s monthly income and respondents are permitted to give more than one response.

In the period July 2016 to December 2017, 34% of respondents reported that they would use their existing current accounts. This rose from 27% in July 2014 to June 2016. However, 8% reported that they would not be able to find the money, which was similar to July 2014 to June 2016.

Those aged 16 to 24 years were the most likely to report that they would be unable to meet a major expense, with 12% reporting this in the period July 2016 to December 2017. This fell from 15% in July 2014 to June 2016. Those aged 45 to 54 years were the second most likely to report this, with 10% doing so in July 2016 to December 2017. There was a fall in the proportion of most age groups who would be unable to meet a major expense between July 2014 to June 2016 and July 2016 to December 2017.

The age group least likely to report this were those aged 65 years and over, with 5% reporting this in July 2016 to December 2017. This was compared with 8% for the population as a whole.

Figure 5 shows that 39% of respondents said that they would use their savings or investments in order to meet a major expense in July 2016 to December 2017. This fell from 45% in July 2014 to June 2016. Those aged 55 to 64 years were the most likely to report this, with 45% doing so in July 2016 to December 2017, although this fell from 52% in July 2014 to June 2016.

The proportion that would draw money from a current account (excluding any overdraft facility) increased for all age groups between July 2014 to June 2016 and July 2016 to December 2017. The proportion of respondents reporting this also appears to increase with age – those aged 65 years and over were the most likely to use their current accounts, with 50% reporting this in July 2016 to December 2017. This rose from 39% in July 2014 to June 2016. However, just 22% of those aged 16 to 24 years reported that they would use their current accounts, although, this increased from 18% in July 2014 to June 2016.

Another indicator of someone’s financial security could be how long they would be able to make ends meet if they lost the main source of income coming into their household. In the period July 2016 to December 2017, 44% of respondents reported that in these circumstances, they would not be able to make ends meet for longer than three months¹. This fell slightly from 46% in July 2014 to June 2016.

This picture varies by region, with 54% of those in the North East reporting that they would be unable to make ends meet for more than three months in July 2016 to December 2017, the highest of any region. However, the South East was the region with the lowest proportion of people, with 36% reporting being in this situation.

When we look at how this varies across the age distribution, we can see that the percentage of each age group reporting that they would be unable to make ends meet for more than three months if they lost the main source of income coming into their household has followed a declining or flat trend. However, it is those aged 16 to 24 years who are the most likely to report this, with 68% of respondents in this age group doing so in July 2016 to December 2017. This fell from 72% in July 2014 to June 2016 but compares with 26% of those aged 65 years and over in July 2016 to December 2017.

Figure 9 shows that 26% of respondents in July 2016 to December 2017 reported that they would not be able to make ends meet for more than one month if they lost the main source of income coming into their household². This was similar to the proportion who reported this in July 2014 to June 2016.

When we look at this by region, most see a flat or declining trend. However, the North East, East Midlands and East of England saw an increase. The region where respondents were most likely to report being in this situation was the North East, with 39% doing so in July 2016 to December 2017. This rose from 32% in July 2014 to June 2016. The two regions with the lowest proportion of people reporting this were the South East and South West, where 20% of respondents were in this situation.

When we look at this by age, we can see that nearly half (48%) of those aged 16 to 24 years reported that they would be unable to make ends meet for longer than one month if they lost their household’s main source of income. However, this fell slightly from 50% in July 2014 to June 2016.

Those aged 65 years and over, in contrast, were over three times less likely to report being in this situation, with 15% doing so in July 2016 to December 2017. This rose slightly from 14% in July 2014 to June 2016.

Of those aged 16 to 24 years who were living independently³ in July 2016 to December 2017, 71% reported that they would not be able to make ends meet for longer than three months if they lost their household’s main source of income. Figure 11 also shows that 50% reported that they would not be able to make ends meet in this situation for more than one month. Of those who were living with family⁴ over the same period, 67% reported that they would not be able to make ends meet for more than three months in this situation, with 47% reporting that they would not be able to make ends meet for more than one month.

It is important to note that those aged 16 to 24 years who are living with family may not be the highest earners in their household. In this case, seeing as the question refers to the “main source of income coming into the household”, this would likely be the income of another member of the household.

Those aged 65 years and over were also the most likely to report having no idea how much money was in their current account, with 8% doing so in July 2016 to December 2017. However, there was not a great deal of variation across the age distribution, with 4% of each age group under 45 reporting this, compared with the Great Britain average of 6%.

Notes for: Financial situation

1. This refers to the sum of those who gave the answers “less than one week” and “one week or more but less than one month” and “one month or more but less than three months”, when asked the question “For how long would you (and your partner) be able to make ends meet if you lost the main source of income coming into your household?”. Further details on this question can be found in Table 3 of Annex 1.

2. This refers to the sum of those who gave the answers “less than one week” and “one week or more but less than one month”, when asked the question “For how long would you (and your partner) be able to make ends meet if you lost the main source of income coming into your household?”. Further details on this question can be found in Table 3 of Annex 1.

3. We define “independent” for those aged 16 to 24 years as those who live in single person households, in a couple with no children, in a couple with dependent children where the individual reports having a child themselves, or in a mixed household where all other members of the household are either in a couple with the individual or are not related to the individual.

4. We define “living with family” for those aged 16 to 24 years as those who live in households with non-dependent children, those living in households with dependent children where the individual does not report having a child themselves, and mixed households where at least one other member of the household is a relative of the individual, but is not in a couple with them.

We asked non-retired respondents to indicate what they thought was the safest method of saving for retirement. The most popular option, which was selected by 40% in July 2016 to December 2017 was paying into an employer pension. This was unchanged from July 2014 to June 2016. The second most popular option was investing in property, which was selected by 29% of respondents and also unchanged from July 2014 to June 2016.

The proportion of people who selected “paying into an employer pension scheme” was similar across the age distribution, but with a slightly smaller proportion of the younger age groups. We can also see that investing in property was slightly more popular among those aged 25 to 44 years. However, those aged 16 to 24 years were the most likely to think that paying into a personal pension was the safest way to save for retirement, with 17% reporting this in July 2016 to December 2017.

We also observe that the self-employed were more likely to favour personal pensions, compared with employees. Figure 16 shows that 18% of the self-employed thought this would be the safest way to save for retirement in July 2016 to December 2017, compared with 13% of employees. However, we might expect this to be the case, due to the fact that employer pensions are not available for the self-employed.

However, 15% of the self-employed still thought that employer pensions were the safest way to save for retirement in July 2016 to December 2017. This was compared with 44% of employees, for whom this was the most popular option.

The most popular option among the self-employed was investing in property, with 42% holding this view in July 2016 to December 2017. This was compared with 27% of employees, for whom it was the second most popular option.

In 2012, the policy of automatic enrolment into workplace pensions was introduced. This means that employers must enroll employees who are aged 22 years or over and earn £10,000 or more per annum into a workplace pension scheme, unless the employee chooses to opt out. This was rolled out in stages, starting with the largest employers, before being applied to medium-sized and small businesses.

In the period July 2016 to December 2017, 40% of adults aged under 60 years indicated that they were not in receipt of, or contributing to a pension, which fell from 50% in July 2014 to June 2016¹ .

We asked this cohort why this was the case. Respondents were allowed to give more than one response and the most common was that their income was too low, they were not working, or they were still in education, with 55% reporting this in July 2016 to December 2017. This rose from 50% in July 2014 to June 2016. However, we might expect this to be the case, as the rollout of automatic enrolment into workplace pensions means that more people are saving into a pension. Therefore, those who are not eligible for automatic enrolment into workplace pensions due to low income or not being in work will make up a larger proportion of those not contributing to a pension than they did previously.

Those aged 16 to 24 years were the most likely to report not contributing to a pension due to low income, not working or still being in education, with 61% doing so in July 2016 to December 2017. However, those aged 55 to 60 years were the least likely to report this, with 47% doing so in July 2016 to December 2017.

Some people prefer alternative forms of saving. In July 2016 to December 2017, 8% of respondents aged under 60 years who were not contributing to a pension gave this as their reason for not doing so. This was similar to July 2014 to June 2016. Those aged 25 to 34 and 55 to 60 years were the most likely age groups to report this, with 11% of them doing so in July 2016 to December 2017. However, those aged 16 to 24 years were far less likely to report this, with only 4% doing so in July 2016 to December 2017.

The proportion of those aged 25 to 60 years who reported preferring alternative forms of saving was broadly similar across all periods.

Not contributing to a pension due to low income, not working, or still being in education was a more common option among those who were employees, with 56% selecting this in July 2016 to December 2017. This was compared with 41% of the self-employed.

There was a higher proportion (19%) of the self-employed who said they preferred alternative forms of saving than employees (6%) in July 2016 to December 2017. They were also more likely than employees to report that they could not afford to, or that they had too many bills or debts, with 31% and 24% reporting this respectively, compared with 26% and 17% of employees.

In July 2016 to December 2017, 42% of non-retired respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I feel I understand enough about pensions to make decisions about saving for retirement”. This fell slightly from 46% in July 2014 to June 2016.

Those aged 55 years and over were the most likely to agree, with 64% of them doing so in July 2016 to December 2017. However, those aged 16 to 24 years were the least likely to agree, with 17% of them doing so in July 2016 to December 2017.

We asked all employees aged 22 years and over and below State Pension age some questions about automatic enrolment. Figure 22 shows that during the period July 2016 to December 2017, of those earning £10,000 or more per annum from their main job who indicated that they were aware of the policy, and that their employer had begun to automatically enroll employees, 63% reported that they had been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension. Figure 22 also shows that 36% of respondents reported that they had not been automatically enrolled and 1% said they did not know.

Of those who were aware that they had been automatically enrolled, 13% said they had been members of the scheme since the policy was introduced in 2012. Just over one-quarter (26%) reported joining the scheme in 2016, with 12% saying they joined during 2017. These latter responses reflect the gradual rolling out of automatic enrolment into workplace pensions and possibly, people changing jobs and moving to employers with automatic enrolment.

Of eligible employees, who were aware of automatic enrolment into workplace pensions and reported that their employer had begun to automatically enroll employees, 36% reported that they themselves had not been automatically enrolled.

Of this cohort, 91% of them were already contributing to a pension scheme and therefore would not have been affected by the new legislation. A further 4% were previously contributing to a pension, but have since changed jobs, such that they are no longer eligible for the scheme they were previously enrolled in. The remaining 5% did not report previously being enrolled into a pension scheme.

Notes for:Pensions

1. This number differs from that published in the Wealth in Great Britain bulletin for the period July 2014 to June 2016. The number published in the Wealth in Great Britain bulletin measures only those contributing to a pension and excludes those in receipt of a pension. This number is also based on imputed data, while imputation is not carried out on the data relating to reasons for not contributing to a pension scheme.

2. Restricted to employees who are “eligible” for automatic enrolment into workplace pensions. This covers those aged 22 years to State Pension age who are earning £10,000 or more per anum from their main job.

3. Restricted to employees who are “eligible” for automatic enrolment into workplace pensions. This covers those aged 22 to state pension age who are earning £10,000 or more per anum from their main job.

• Wealth in Great Britain Wave 5 July 2014 to June 2016

• Early indicator estimates from the Wealth and Assets Survey: attitudes towards saving for retirement, automatic enrolments into workplace pensions, credit commitments and debt burden, July 2016 to June 2017

The Wealth and Assets Survey Quality and Methodology Information report contains important information on:

• the strengths and limitations of the data and how it compares with related data

• users and uses of the data

• how the output was created

• the quality of the output including the accuracy of the data

These tables detail the questions from our survey that were used in this article. They provide information on the name of the variable in our datasets, who was asked the question, what the question was and the possible responses to the question.

These tables detail the questions from our survey that are included in the dataset accompanying this article. They provide information on the name of the variable in our datasets, who was asked the question, what the question was and the possible responses to the question.