For Immediate Release: Tuesday 11 July 2000

END OF TERM SAVINGS REPORT: NO SIGN OF IMPROVEMENT YET - ADULTS REALLY MUST TRY HARDER

• "When half the population have only £200 or less in savings, there is broad agreement that we must do more to encourage savings by everyone" Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Budget Speech 1998  
• In 1901 under 5% of the UK population was aged 65+, by 2000 this had reached 15% and by 2050, just short of 25% of the population will be over the current retirement age – that means one pensioner for every two working adults. (Office for National Statistics – Govt. Actuary’s Dept.)
• Public understanding of personal finance matters shows negligible improvement over the past three years. (AUTIF – Financial Awareness and Consumer Education Tracking Study - FACETS)

Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) are ideal for everyone – from people who have never saved before, who can take their first steps into a cash deposit account, to those able to make a long-term commitment, who can opt for equity ISAs. Yet people still find these products confusing.

56% of the people asked in AUTIF’s monthly tracking study (FACETS) understand that ISAs are tax free investments, but only 34% realise that you are only entitled to one ISA allowance each year and that the three possible parts, cash, stocks and shares and insurance can be with different providers.

To help potential investors get a better idea of what to some is clearly a complicated subject, AUTIF has updated its free guide to tax-free savings, which explains in simple terms the benefits of ISAs. Feedback suggests the question and answer section is particularly helpful.

Anne McMeehan, Director of Communications at AUTIF said:

"The lack of improvement in consumer understanding makes for pretty depressing reading. There is a wealth of information available nowadays, but somehow the message simply isn’t getting through. Month after month our financial awareness tracking study shows a worryingly consistent pattern of public uncertainty.

It is so important that people recognise that saving is not something they can put off. The State will not be there to provide. We just hope that our new fact sheet will help more people get to grips with some investment basics. ISAs shouldn’t be seen as that daunting."

For further information please contact:

Anne McMeehan, Director of Communications, AUTIF - +44 (0)20 7831 0898
Clare Arber, PR Manager, AUTIF - +44 (0)20 7831 0898

Notes to Editors:

1. *FACETS (Financial Awareness and Consumer Education Tracking Study) is sponsored by the Association of Unit Trusts and Investment Funds (AUTIF) and is a cross-population study based on independent data collected by RSL, one of the largest operations working in this area and a leading exponent of computer assisted personal interviewing; and is then analysed across a wide range of socio-demographic splits using MarketMinder (For further details contact Mike Hare - MarketMinder - Tel: 01778 345588)

2. Each month a sample of 1000 people is filtered to isolate those responsible for making financial decisions. It is rigorously selected to reflect the balance of the adult population by sex, age, socio-economic group and geographical location. People are interviewed on a face to face basis to ascertain their understanding of basic personal finance matters that are likely to affect them.

3. There are 14 questions asked each month covering a wide range of personal financial topics. They are the same questions and do not change unless circumstances specifically demand it, in which case they are replaced by a question of similar weight and where a lack of understanding or appreciation will have similar implications for people's financial security. As this is an ongoing survey these are 'live' questions and therefore their precise nature and phraseology is not open to general disclosure

4. The questions are asked to establish a True, False or Don't know response, thereby establishing a number of measurement tools. The main AUTIF FACETS index is based on knowledge, i.e. those questions that are correctly answered. In addition AUTIF is in a position to measure the level of misunderstanding, i.e. where the answer given is wrong, the level of ignorance where the answer is 'don't know' and if the last two elements are combined to form a composite, the understanding 'gap' can be monitored. Furthermore, this can be carried through to assess understanding on an individual question basis and to measure any improvement that can be isolated to specific segments of the population.