Workplace savings just got national backing

Today an employer-led coalition launched to help more of the UK save through their workplace, with the City Minister and Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the UN's Special Advocate for Financial Health, on the platform. It's one of the clearest signals yet that helping people set money aside at work has become a national priority.

We're glad to be part of it: My Money Matters is a Partner in this new National Coalition for Workplace Savings, and payroll savings is live today across the local authorities and public-sector employers we work with, turning payday into the moment people start to build a buffer.

What the Coalition is

Launching today, the Coalition brings together employers, sector bodies, research organisations and savings providers to widen access to workplace savings schemes across the UK and lift the number of people using them.

It's led by a steering group of 17 leading employers spanning retail, hospitality, transport, facilities management, the public sector and charities. Together we're working towards four shared goals:

1. More UK employers offering workplace savings to their people

2. More UK employees saving regularly through their workplace

3. Higher average participation rates across the schemes that exist

4. More employees with a savings buffer to fall back on

The Coalition operates through three groups: Signatories, the employers committed to raising participation; Supporters, who bring design, research or policy expertise; and Partners, who provide the savings solutions.

Why this matters if you run a public-sector workforce

Most of your people want to save. What stops them isn't willpower; it's that the money has usually gone before there's anything left to set aside. Workplace savings fixes the timing, because a chosen amount goes into the employee's own easy-access account on payday, before it's missed. For employers, the case is now backed by the kind of credibility that's hard to argue with internally:

- The Coalition is convened by the Money and Pensions Service, Nest Insight and TISA, and is backed by HM Treasury.

- The FCA has published guidance clarifying how these schemes sit alongside pay and benefits, which helps when payroll, HR or legal ask the hard questions.

- In real-world pilots, the schemes have proved straightforward to run and popular with staff, with links to better retention, attentiveness and lower absence.

Why My Money Matters

Plenty of providers can describe workplace savings. Few can show it running at scale in the public sector. That's where we're different, because we've built our schemes specifically for local government and public-sector payroll.

Payroll savings sits alongside two other ways we help your people stay financially resilient:

1. On-demand pay, which gives access to earned pay between paydays, so a short gap doesn't turn into high-cost borrowing.

2. Shared-cost AVCs, a tax-efficient way for employees to top up their pension through salary sacrifice.

Together they cover the same goal from three angles: more breathing room day to day, a buffer for the unexpected, and more put away for later.

What your employees actually get

Money set aside automatically on payday, held as cash in their own name. It's easy-access, with no penalties for taking it out, all or part of it, whenever they need it. It's the difference between facing a surprise bill, a broken boiler or a school trip with a cushion behind you, and facing it on a credit card.

As the Coalition's Chair, Claire Costello of the Co-op Group, put it at launch: making saving easier and more accessible could transform the UK savings landscape. We'd add one thing. The public sector is well placed to prove it first.

Talk to us

If you're responsible for reward, payroll or financial wellbeing in a public-sector organisation, we can walk you through what setting up payroll savings actually involves, and what it's delivered for employers already doing it. Speak to us today. 

You can also read more about the National Coalition for Workplace Savings at tisa.uk.com/savingscoalition.