Nest Insight is a public-benefit research and innovation centre. Our mission is to find ways to support people to be financially secure, both today and into retirement.
We work for financial security for every household
People want to manage and save money for now and for later, and to live in the best possible financial health. But too often, hurdles in the system get in the way – and people are held back. This limits financial wellbeing, and stops everyone enjoying the security they need to thrive.
Those on low, moderate and volatile incomes frequently encounter more challenges than others in making best use of what they earn and own. Getting it right for their households would help get it right for everyone, and would bring wider benefits of all kinds – beyond the financial – for individuals, our society and economy.
Nest Insight takes a holistic approach to exploring all the ways that products, policies and services can inclusively support people throughout their financial lives. We work with policymakers, the financial services industry, employers, academics, stakeholders and influencers in the UK and internationally to collaborate and innovate, always with real households and real human experiences at the heart of our thinking. Our convening power, and the way we bring together insight drawn from research and practical solution design, drives transformational changes in our financial system so that nobody is left behind.
Our work
Our work is about helping people and households on low, moderate and volatile incomes cope with financial shocks, build up savings, and create lifelong wealth. We view this in three pillars: resilience, saving, and lifelong financial security.
Alongside these pillars of resilience, saving and lifelong financial security, our foundational research integrates data and insights into households’ real financial lives, and rigorously evaluates previous interventions, including auto enrolment into pensions.
Resilience
Financial emergencies like a household appliance breaking down, or a change in the household’s income, are unavoidable. One quarter of adults in the UK have less than £100 in savings – leaving them vulnerable at these moments. We explore ways to build much-needed flexibility into the system, including in payroll practices and access to insurance and affordable credit.
Saving
Helping people be more resilient helps them carve out the time, money and headspace to save. Saving, in turn, makes them more secure and creates a platform for longer-term security. We work with major employers and solution providers to develop and trial workplace savings approaches which increase participation rates and make sure nobody is left behind.
Lifelong financial security
We work to support people to build financial security throughout life, both before and in retirement. This can be achieved through pension saving, secure long-term housing, and other forms of investment and saving. We find ways to make the financial system more inclusive for people who are self-employed or work for smaller businesses, as well as for those who encounter particular challenges.
How we are funded
Our work is funded by a combination of sponsorships, grants and in-kind support from organisations that share our values. By forming partnerships and working together, we believe our work will make a difference to millions of people.
Nest Corporation
Nest Corporation is the Trustee of Nest. It was established by legislation as a public corporation to run the Nest pension scheme. Nest Corporation is accountable to Parliament through the Department for Work and Pensions but is generally independent of government in its day-to-day decisions.
Our impact
Throughout our organisational life, our work has influenced policy development and is frequently cited as an evidence base for action for low and moderate income workers by thinktanks, industry bodies and providers including the FCA, Resolution Foundation, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, and the MaPS UK financial wellbeing strategy.
Our story – key achievements
Nest Insight established as a public benefit research centre. Our first strands of work looked at auto enrolment and pensions engagement.
Supported by BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase and the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), we initiated the first major trial into a combined long-term and short-term savings tool, known as ‘sidecar’ savings, working with employers including BT, ITV and Timpson. This work has shown how short-term liquid savings for now, and long-term illiquid savings for retirement, can work together, and has had international influence on the development of new approaches.
We started a programme of work looking at how to support more self-employed people to save for their future, supported by the Department of Work and Pensions. The first phase of work used a range of research methods to identify the barriers and challenges uniquely faced by self-employed people and explored innovative ways to support them to save.
Working with major employers Bupa Care Services, the Co-op and SUEZ, and with the support of The BlackRock Foundation and MaPS, we established another ‘first’ when we trialled opt-out approaches to workplace savings via payroll. The trials have shown that behavioural support for savings is a powerful and popular tool which could be a game changer for participation in savings, and have consolidated our profile as an innovator and thought leader.
Supported by JPMorganChase, we investigated how affordable access to money could build people’s resilience, through looking at how financial gaps for workers could be bridged via earned-wage access and workplace loans. This work reflected the viewpoints of low- and moderate-income employees themselves, along with those of employer decision-makers, providers and industry and consumer experts. Our self-employed work continued with pilots of new technology-based savings nudges, working with Penfold and Moneyhub. These trials highlighted the need for automated savings solutions that fit into the busy financial lives of self-employed people.
Our Real Accounts project was set up, supported by the Aviva Foundation, MaPS and Fair4All Finance and powered by Moneyhub – a long-term study of UK households’ real financial lives. The first study of its kind in the UK, it combines a custom designed research data collection app to capture thousands of instances of real-time income and expenditure transaction data with monthly qualitative interviewing. The emerging findings are already shedding new light on the impact of an inflexible system on the millions of households whose income dips and spikes.