Who gets to save? Designing for financial inclusion

This UK Savings Week, I’m reflecting on a question that’s central to our work in customer inclusion: how do we make saving possible—and meaningful—for everyone? Not just for the financially secure, but for those navigating complex and volatile circumstances, exclusion, and systemic disadvantage.
As someone who works across financial services – and as a customer – I see daily how product design choices can empower or exclude different people. And when it comes to savings, exclusion has consequences far beyond the balance sheet.

The Savings Gap: Who’s Being Left Behind?

Let’s start with the data. According to Fair4All Finance, five million people have no savings. That’s 1 in 10 people in the UK. That’s not just a statistic—it’s a signal of systemic failure.

Certain groups are disproportionately affected:

4 in 10 people who are digitally excluded also have no savings – reflecting significant access challenges and limited choice for non-digital channels
3 in 10 people with poor numeracy skills, or who are not working due to ill health
Lone parents and low earners are twice as likely than UK average to have no savings
Minority ethnic adults* are also more likely to have no savings

*We use the term Minority Ethnic Adults as this term is used by the FCA in the Financial Lives data set.

Bar chart titled “UK Adults with no investible assets (FCA Financial Lives 2024)” showing the percentage of UK adults without investible assets across eight demographic and socioeconomic groups. The chart uses distinct coloured bars to represent each group. The percentages are as follows: • UK Adults (baseline): 10% • Digitally excluded individuals: 42% • Adults with poor numeracy skills: 31% • People not working due to health conditions: 30% • Lone parents: 27% • Individuals earning less than £15,000 annually: 22% • Adults with current mental health conditions: 19% • Minority ethnic adults: 16%

These aren’t edge cases—they’re millions of people. And the traditional savings model isn’t working for them.

Why Inclusive Design Matters

In the “Why We Save” Podcast, I talk about the importance of designing for real lives, not “typical” or “rational” customers. Inclusive design is about designing financial products and services that reflect real lives—with all their complexity, unpredictability, and emotional nuance.

What can that look like?

Flexible savings tools that accommodate irregular income, like “save what you can” models or round-up features
Partnerships that meet people where they are, such as Credit Union and Food Bank partnerships for those with low financial resilience, or workplace savings plans for those looking to automate savings and remove the friction of decision making/remembering to save
Repay and save solutions, recognising that people may still have a need to access credit, while building short and long term resilience

UK Savings Week: A Call to Action

UK Savings Week is a chance to reimagine what saving could look like—for everyone. It’s not just about encouraging people to save a bit more, or open new accounts. It’s on all of us who have the privilege of designing products to build systems that make saving possible for people who are underserved.

So here’s my call to action:

Design with different and complex needs in mind. Use inclusive design principles from the start—not as a retrofit. Map real-life barriers and build solutions that flex. AND, involve different people in the design process for the best results.
Use data to drive equity. When looking at customer outcomes tracking for savings, split your data by age, ethnicity, disability, income, and more. If certain groups aren’t engaging, ask why—and fix it.
Collaborate across sectors. Banks, fintechs, regulators, and community groups can co-create solutions, and meet people why they are to build financial resilience

We all have a role to play

Savings are more than numbers. They’re about resilience, possibility and opportunity. If we want to close the savings gap, we need to open up our design processes—to every voice and every need.
Let’s make this UK Savings Week the moment we stop asking “Why aren’t people saving?” and start asking “How can we design savings that work for everyone?” – and take that forward with us when UK Savings Week ends.

Notes:

UK Savings Week runs from September 22 – 28 2025. The Building Societies Association, the trade body of UK building societies and seven large credit unions, launched UK Savings Week in 2022.

References:
1. Fair4All Finance Savings Research: https://fair4allfinance.org.uk/over-10m-people-in-the-uk-are-saving-less-than-they-used-to-or-have-stopped-completely/
2. FCA Financial Lives 2024 https://www.fca.org.uk/financial-lives/financial-lives-2024

Find out about Lauren Peel

Lauren is a leader in consumer and financial vulnerability with over a decade of experience in consumer strategy and delivery, from insights and co-design through to experience and propositions.

2025

Upcoming events we’re attending