Major modern businesses Hermes and Uber will be working alongside financial giants such as Aviva, Barclays, and Zurich as a two day tech innovation event gets under way in east London later.
The #SavingsTechSprint, being held by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), Department for Work and Pensions and HM Treasury, is exploring ways that technology could make it easier for the self-employed to save for retirement.
Also participating in the event at Aviva’s Digital Garage are fintech firms offering online money management tools – for example Squirrel, Trezeo and Portify.
Nearly 5 million people across Britain now work for themselves, a number that has increased by 50% since 2000, but only 19% of the self-employed are saving into a personal pension. There is no equivalent of auto-enrolment for the self-employed.
Teams will be set the challenge of developing practical solutions and interventions, focusing on the role technology and developments such as the Pensions Dashboard and Open Banking could play in helping the self-employed to build greater financial resilience for later life.
Yvonne Braun, Director of Policy, Long-term Savings and Protection, ABI, said:
“People of all sorts of ages, skill levels, backgrounds and professions work for themselves – there is no typical self-employed person. The one thing they do all have in common though is the need to prepare for their retirement and ensure they have a way to pay for it.
“Auto-enrolment has brought thousands more workers into pension saving and I’m excited to see what this week’s event can come up with to offer similar security to the self-employed.”
IPSE, the Association for Independent Professionals and the Self-employed, also has people taking part. Jonathan Lima-Matthews, Senior Policy Adviser at IPSE, said:
“Low pension uptake is a ticking time bomb and a major concern for IPSE, especially as our most recent survey showed 16% of self-employed people were not saving for later life at all.
“IPSE strongly believes that tech-based solutions can help spread the word about the benefits of saving for life, and will encourage new and improved products which suit the specific needs of the growing self-employed population.”
Emanuel Andjelic, one of the founders of Squirrel, set the firm up after his own struggles with managing money as someone self-employed. Emanuel said:
"Running your own business often means you're juggling so many balls that you end up neglecting the one that matters most, your financial future.
“As an entrepreneur I'm instinctively optimistic about the future success of my businesses, but that leaves me grossly underprepared if things don't go to plan."
The full list of companies taking part in the #SavingsTechSprint are:
- Aquila Heywood
- Aviva
- Barclays
- Bravura
- CBW Group
- Clarence Services
- Hargreaves Lansdown
- Hermes
- LV=
- Moneysavingexpert.com
- NEST Insight
- Old Mutual Wealth
- Parmenion
- Portify
- Prudential
- Redington
- Sage
- SalaryFinance
- Squirrel
- Tata Consultancy Services
- TISA
- Trexeo
- Uber
- Zurich
-ENDS-
Notes for Editors
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2. The Association of British Insurers is the voice of the UK’s world leading insurance and long-term savings industry.
A productive, inclusive and thriving sector, we are an industry that provides peace of mind to households and businesses across the UK and powers the growth of local and regional economies by enabling trade, risk taking, investment and innovation.
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