Money and Pensions Service sets out its ten-year UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing

Friday 12 January 2024

This week the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) announced its ten-year strategy to improve financial wellbeing in the UK.

As reported by MaPS this week, 11.5 million people in the UK have less than £100 in saving to fall back on, while nine million people said they often use credit cards and payday loans to meet essential weekly food and energy bills. MaPS has set out its ten-year plan to improve millions of lives, promising that by 2030, an extra two million people will be saving regularly, and two million fewer will be using credit cards for daily spending.

Acting Chief Executive of the Money and Pensions Service, Caroline Siarkiewicz said: “Financial wellbeing underpins personal health and happiness but it doesn’t happen by chance. We’re launching a strategy for entire lifetimes, aiming to expand financial education for children while ensuring everyone is equipped to plan for and enjoy their retirement.

“We have a decade to make a difference and we cannot achieve change alone, so we will be connecting companies, charities and other organisations which share our vision, to make this happen.”

ABCUL Chief Executive, Robert Kelly commented on the announcement this week: “ABCUL is delighted to support the Money and Pension Service’s (MaPS) UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing. We have been working closely with MaPS for many months, exploring new and exciting initiatives for credit unions to support their aims to expand affordable credit.

“I echo the words of Caroline Siarkiewicz – key initiatives moving forward for the countries financial wellbeing is to increase the availability of affordable credit and introduce more payroll saving products. Credit unions have a proven track record of helping people to save and improve their financial resilience, with members in Great Britain having built up savings of over £1.3 billion. Research such as the Save As You Borrow report proves that credit unions are playing a vital role in helping their members become financially responsible.

“As the leading trade association for credit unions in Britain, we look forward to continuing our work with key stakeholders across England, Scotland and Wales as we strive for greater financial wellbeing in communities across the country.”

You can download a copy of the MaPS strategy from its website here.