Eight million in UK without savings: Report

A new UK study has found that almost 15 million UK citizens were "not currently making any effort" to save for the future, while 8 million had no savings to their name at all.

The research also revealed that last year, the number of people who had given or loaned "substantial" amounts of money to their children or other family members, to mostly simply help them meet daily living expenses, had increased.

Around 31 per cent of the UK adult population - around 14.9 million people were failing to save, the seventh annual savings and investment report from Scottish Widows, part of Lloyds Banking Group, reveals. This comes as a marginal improvement on the 32 per cent figure of a year ago.

The report also found that even as the majority were able to put some money away, nearly a third (32 per cent) said the value of their total savings and investments stood at less than £1,000, a figure just under a typical household's combined monthly mortgage and council tax bill (£1,009).

According to the authors of the report, families were increasingly "shouldering the burden", with this year's survey saying 40 per cent of those quizzed said they had given or loaned family members "substantial amounts of money" - up from 30 per cent last year.

According to Scottish Widows, the report painted "a bleak picture" of the ability of people to cope with financial shocks that could hit now or in the future.