The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the Financial Lives 2024 survey.
Key findings from the survey include:
- 13.1 million had low financial resilience in May 2024 (24% of all UK adults): not statistically different from May 2022 (24%, 12.9m).
- 26.4 million had characteristics of vulnerability in May 2024 (49% of all UK adults): a decrease of 0.9 million since May 2022 (52%, 27.3m).
- That one in ten people have no cash savings at all.
- Of the 1.7 million people who had used a debt advice or debt management service in the previous 12 months, 61% said their debts were more manageable as a result.
- There are more people banking online or with a mobile app – 1.2 million adults were digitally excluded, a dramatic improvement from 6.9 million in 2017.
- 61% of people with more than £10,000 in investible assets held at least three-quarters of these assets in cash, rather than investments. The FCA wants to see more people holding mainstream investments to improve long-term returns.
- One-third of adults with a defined contribution pension have less than £10,000 saved.