On the go: Nest Insight, the research arm of the Nest master trust, has launched an emergency savings trial with financial wellbeing provider Wagestream to examine employee financial resilience and the impact of different nudges to encourage people to save.
Working with members of Wagestream’s existing employer base, the research will look at two ways to encourage staff to save on payday. The company currently provides its wellbeing app to more than 2mn employees.
Wagestream head of impact and inclusion Emily Trant said: “Around a third of workers saving with Wagestream are building up savings for the first time in their life — but we know there’s still more we can do.”
The first saving method that will be tested in the project is known as ‘active choice’ and involves a prompt asking employees whether or not they want to save.
The second replicates the nudge approach used in auto-enrolment. It automatically saves at a default rate for employees, allowing them to opt out or change the saving amount.
Nest Insight research trial manager Emma Stockdale said: “We have already seen the positive benefits saving can have for financial wellbeing, and autosave is a powerful mechanism for supporting people to get started.”
The collaboration with Wagestream will allow Nest to address outstanding questions such as how autosave works in different employer settings and using a financial wellbeing platform, she adds.
Stockdale said: “We’ll also be able to look at the active choice saving mechanism.”
Over the next two years, research will be conducted to assess participation rates, savings behaviours and the impact on employee financial wellbeing.
The trial seeks to strengthen the financial security of low and moderate-income earners by increasing their accessible savings through automation.
Sarah Porretta, Money and Pensions Service propositions, insights and external engagement executive director, said: “Expanding the provision of payroll savings schemes is key to the Nation of Savers pillar of our UK Strategy for financial wellbeing where, in partnership with others, we want to increase the number of people on low-to-modest incomes saving regularly by 2mn”
