Birmingham Midshires - savings level increase

Research from Birmingham Midshires has revealed that savings level are increasing in spite of the credit squeeze having an impact on struggling households.

The study shows that people in the UK appear to be prepared to take action to safeguard their spending. Britons are topping up their savings account and dipping less into funds.

Over the last 3 months, an average of £938 has been saved per person compared with £910 in the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, people have raided just £1,700 this year, down from more than £2,000 last year. One in seven saved up to £5,000 while 1% saved over £10,000.

However, the amount of people who do not have enough money to save is rising as 24% had not saved anything in the last three months compared with 20% last year.

Tim Hague of Birmingham Midshires said our study reveals how current market conditions are playing on the minds of Britons. Despite an increase in living costs, people are becoming more cautious and managing to save more and spend less, with their financial future in mind.

However, credit reference agency, Callcredit, claims that Britons are not putting enough money away as 40% of the UK’s working population could not live on their savings alone for more than a month.

Furthermore, one quarter of people have either reduced the amount they have been saving over the last six months or have stopped saving altogether while 5% are spending over half of their income on unsecured debt repayments, according to Callcredit.

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