Last week the government promised a new children's saving scheme where the state would top up money put in by parents. Ministers speak as if across Britain people are discussing precisely which savings product should be the home for their money. But figures just published in the official Social Trends survey show 28 percent of households have no savings at all and 22 percent have less than 1,500. That means half of the population have not a penny put away or just a few pounds in a building society.
Saving is for the rich.
One in eight households have savings of over 20,000. One in ten have over 100,000. Rich savers avoided 1.3 billion in tax every year from these schemes alone. Labour set up the system of Individual Savings Accounts. These allow a rich couple to stash away 140,000 over ten years and collect the interest free of all tax.