Supporting self-employed people to save for retirement

Auto enrolment has addressed participation and coverage issues for many traditionally employed workers. But for those working in self-employment, now a growing demographic around the world, the current auto enrolment mechanism does not usually apply.

In 2019, we began a multi-year programme of research to understand the low levels of saving seen among self-employed people and to test a range of approaches to encourage and enable retirement saving in a way that fits with their context and meets their needs.

Research objectives

Our research trials are aiming to test whether certain types of intervention can increase the likelihood that self-employed people will save for the long-term. As part of this, we’re testing different forms of messaging and savings options, and exploring behavioural ‘nudges’ that can be introduced into existing systems and online platforms that the self-employed already use to manage their work and finances.

Research methodology

Our programme of research included:

  • A literature review of published evidence on what works in prompting voluntary take-up of pensions and long-term savings.
  • Qualitative exploration and development of a set of messaging concepts designed to encourage pension saving and ideas for mechanisms that could enable saving.
  • Quantitative research to better understand the savings behaviours and interactions of self-employed people with different online platforms and to further test the appetite for different mechanisms for facilitating retirement saving.
  • Messaging trials: to test the effectiveness of different message frames with different self-employed populations, drawn from IPSE’s membership and Nest members.
  • Technology based trials: to test the attractiveness and effectiveness of different ‘set and forget’ mechanisms as well as a range of default product and contribution options, by partnering with platforms and services used by self-employed people.