The most successful government intervention of all time?

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This episode is around savings, and how saving into a pension was made easier through one small, but significant change in process. Less than 50% of UK workers were saving in a pension prior to 2012, and more than 80% now do - and our guest played a role in helping this change become the default across the UK. What’s the next innovation that will change millions of lives?

Show notes

A huge thank you to my guest Helen Dean CBE for coming on the show to tell the story of how pensions auto enrolment unfolded in the UK, plus how we might use that blueprint to drive a similar scale of intervention in short-term savings. I was lucky enough to get some of Helen’s time in her very last week as CEO of Nest Corporation. Hers is a unique story and I am so grateful for the time she took to tell it. And wow, what an impact she’s had on so many working people in the UK.

Here are some links to the research, reports and organisations we covered on the show:

• Professor David Laibson’s work inspired both auto enrolment and opt-out savings trials. Have a scroll through his work to find out more, or simply to feel awed by how much he has produced since receiving his PhD in 1994.
• All the papers by the Pensions Commission are published on the government’s National Archives.

If 300+ page reports don’t float your boat, the Institute for Government has a nice and short (13 pages) summary of the work and output of the Pension Commission. Alternatively you can download the exec summaries from the National Archives and skip the technical annexes.

Turning to short-term savings:

• Nest Insight opt-out payroll saving trials - for more information about these trials
• Report: Opt-out autosave at work goes through the evidence that shows a dramatic boost in savings participation.
• Report: Automating Short-Term Payroll Savings: Evidence from Two Large U.K. Experiments is a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper put together by the academic team from Harvard and Yale. If you like charts and data, this technical paper is for you.
• Report: Getting employees started with saving: Nest Insight employers’ guide – Implementing opt-out payroll autosave for employees. Well worth a read if you’re thinking about this for your organisation.
• Report: Savings for All looks into the intersection of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion efforts and opt-out savings.

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