Savers have been sucker-punched.

A barrage of blows by Governments over the past 20 years - mainly motivated by political expediency or financial urgency – has left millions of ordinary savers dazed and confused.

There’s been no co-ordinated savings policy to get a grip on; pensions have been persistently poleaxed by poor policymaking; and ham-fisted means-testing continues to bamboozle pensioners.

Britons who simply want to save for themselves, their families and their future – and be confident that their efforts will be rewarded with support and encouragement - have been woefully ignored, making a mockery of Government commitments to engage its population in long-term savings.

So what on earth happened to our savings culture, and who’s to blame for its betrayal?

To help you make sense of the story behind our saga, we’ve laid bare the savings landscape. It’s neither a pretty sight nor a path to saver salvation but it does underline how it all went wrong and who is to blame – an unholy mix of poor Government, less-than-robust regulation and the eternal struggle between customers and financial institutions to try and simply grab ‘a decent deal’.


Sending out the wrong message

Giving an incentive to savers to, well, simply save doesn’t sound like rocket science: yet it’s a puzzle that has bested governments, regulators and think-tanks for decades. Today’s saving statistics show how far the rot has now set in: it must be stopped.

Pulverising final salary pension funds

Final salary schemes, allowing you to retire on up to two-thirds of your last paycheque, are not likely long for this world. Neglected while the going was good and stock markets soared, their rapid – and now very public - disappearance thanks to ballooning costs, suffocating regulation and our longer lifespans will be mourned by savers.

More penalties for pension savers….

It’s not just pension performance that’s a major worry: a deadly mix of means-testing and untested Government policy could undo big plans for a new semi-compulsory pension saving scheme to go live in 2012. The deadweight of regulation, it’s clear, is in danger of ruining decent pension provision.

Inequalities between public and private pensions

One of the future’s most likely ferocious financial battles: between the pensions ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. Retirement worries for public sector workers are generally scorned as risk-free, while private sector workers scrimp and save to try and eke out a modest pension pot. The truth is rather different, but Government failings have left a lot to answer for.

Unprotected savings?

Who can forget the stupefying scenes outside Northern Rock branches in September 2007 when a run on the bank sent panicking savers scurrying for their cash? Never had anyone imagined their ‘money in the bank’ would be under threat, nor their pension cash in peril.

 

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