Individual Investment Behaviour: A Brief Review Of Research

This brief review of research was carried out to inform whether the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA) should be making decisions for its members with regard to pension fund choices. The findings are based on a review of around 80 items, mostly involving research carried out in the US and UK. The body of evidence mainly comes from the discipline of economics and the field of behavioural economics in particular. Survey data was the most common type of evidence, but the review included qualitative research as well

Money Guidance Pathfinder - A Report to the FSA

In April 2009 the Government and the Financial Services Authority launched the £12m Money Guidance Pathfinder service in the North-West and North-East of England. The service, known as Moneymadeclear, provides impartial information and guidance on a wide range of personal finance issues tailored to the individual's needs and circumstances. It is available through the web, over the phone or face-to-face across the North-West and North-East. An evaluation of the Money Guidance Pathfinder was undertaken by PFRC to provide an evidence base for decisions on the roll out of a national Money Guidance service

Online Personal Finance Learning

True Potential PUFin’s trilogy of free, online personal finance modules is designed to give adults the knowledge and tools they need to make better financial decisions, in bite-size chunks of learning. Between May 2014 and May 2016, a total of 53,770 people registered for Managing My Money, the first course in the trilogy, which gives people the foundations for good personal finance management. This paper looks in detail at Managing My Money: what the course covers, who has taken the course, and what impact the course has had

Saving Us From Ourselves – How Can We Make The UK More Financially Resilient?

Untold time and resource has been devoted to quantifying and analysing the UK’s low level of personal saving – and recommending ways to change it for the better. Yet despite the concerted efforts of academics, policymakers, industry and others, the number of people in the UK with few or no savings remains stubbornly high. When we do decide to save, we are prone to making poor decisions about where to put our money

Beyond Risk Profiling: Achieving better investment outcomes for consumers and industry

In the wake of the Retail Distribution Review, there remain fundamental questions about how best to support consumers to make sound investment decisions, particularly those with modest amounts of money to invest, for whom a poor investment decision may have a disproportionate adverse impact. The advent of new pension freedoms from April 2015, which give people more choice and flexibility about how they use their retirement savings, adds further impetus to the issue. To help inform policy and practice on this important subject, in June 2015 we brought together consumer and industry experts to explore possible new approaches to improve risk profiling and investment decision-making

Evaluation of the DWP Growth Fund

The objective of the DWP Growth Fund was to raise levels of access to affordable credit by building the capacity of third sector lenders to serve financially excluded households. In doing so, the Growth Fund aimed to disrupt the role of high cost credit in the lives of borrowers. Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, our evaluation of the Growth Fund examined both impact and process in order to establish the wider implications of the initiative on: Financially excluded individuals. Third sector lending institutions (Credit Unions / Community Development Finance Institutions). Other organisations delivering services to the financially excluded

An Independent Review Of The Fee-Charging Debt Management Industry

A debt management plan (DMP) provides a means for people to repay their consumer credit debts in full. An affordable payment is calculated, based on an assessment of an individual's inclome and expenditure. The person in debt makes one monthly payment to a debt management provider, which is then distributed between their creditors on a pro rata basis, either electronically or by cheque. DMPs are provided by fee-charging debt management companies, which generally charge their customers a set-up fee and an ongoing monthly management fee. They are aslo provided by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) and Payplan, which are funded primarily by the credit industry and offer DMPs free of charge to people in debt. Almost ten years since the first independent research into fee-charging debt advice and management, the Money Advice Trust commissioned this review to provide an update on the fee-charging debt management industry in the UK. The review included a telephone survey of 53 fee-charging debt management companies, telephone depth interviews with 10 credit industry representatives, and face-to-face depth interviews with 30 customers of fee-charging debt management companies who, between them, had experience of fourteen different fee-charging debt management companies

Locating credit and debt within an anti-poverty strategy for the UK

This paper examines the evidence on the links between problem debt, consumer credit use and poverty to better understand how tackling problems in relation to debt and credit use can contribute to combating poverty. Based on this evidence we recommend four policy and practice interventions for inclusion in an anti-poverty strategy for the UK that would help to increase disposable income and for those already in poverty, help to prevent their financial circumstances from worsening.</jats:p

Financial Wellbeing In Later Life: Evidence And Policy

In 2012, the University of Bristol’s Personal Finance Research Centre (PFRC) and the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC-UK) were awarded funding by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through its Secondary Data Analysis Initiative to explore financial dimensions of wellbeing in older age. Over 15 months, we worked together to generate and disseminate knowledge on this important issue. This report brings together that knowledge and considers its relevance for policy and practice. The financial realities of an ageing population are the focus of intense policy concern, in the UK and across the globe. One in six of us in England and Wales are now aged 65 and over; and the over-85s are the fastest growing sector of the population. In 2010, there were 12,640 centenarians in the UK, and this is projected to rise to 160,000 by 2040 and over 0.5 million by 2066. As a growing population, older people are increasingly important to the UK economy. At the same time, their finances are coming under increasing pressure, not least from high inflation, high care costs, the global recession and public spending cuts. The research highlights three main themes that are relevant for policy and practice: 1. Understanding the older consumer; 2. Understanding older households’ balance sheets; and 3. Understanding the financial aspects of wellbeing in later life