Saving and Asset-Building in Low-Income Households
Article
Having a store of 'rainy day money' can increase a low-income family's resilience and enable it to cope better with an unexpected shock, such as the breakdown of a washing machine or even the loss of a job. Storing up assets can increase opportunities, by, for example, providing the funds to support children when they go to university or to pay for training. But most low-income families find it very difficult to save, other than for specific events already on the horizon.
This paper reports the results of research designed, in part, to examine how low-income families manage their budgets. It presents some of the findings from a study of the income, expenditure, saving and borrowing of a sample of 58 low-income households, and from interviews with those families to discover what drives their behaviour. It examines what lowincome households understand by 'saving'; how low-income households save; and how the economic events of the last two years might have affected their saving behaviour.
Four case studies were published alongside this report.
Related items
Dr Parth Patel on BBC Politics Live - July 2024
IPPR's Dr Parth Patel on BBC Politics Live discussing the new Labour government, Covid, migration and international affairsA ‘mandate’ to deliver: Who voted Labour and what do they want?
This year’s general election saw the Labour party achieve a historic landslide, winning 218 new seats and a comfortable majority in the House of Commons.Half of us: Turnout patterns at the 2024 general election
One-half of adults in this country voted at the 2024 general election, the lowest share of the population to vote since universal suffrage.