Sainsbury’s Bank estimates that on a typical monthly basis, 11.7 million people are saving less in July 2007 than they were three months ago, and even more worryingly 6.8 million people are not saving anything at all

The number of people who save regularly is at the lowest level recorded in two years (46%).

Less than half (43%) of the population are planning for their financial future, with a tenth (11%) of these planners confessing that any plan they have is very vague.

Over one in four (27%) have no savings at all – and a further one in four (25%) have less than £3,000 – meaning that the savings pot of more than half of all households in the UK will last less than three months.

Over 7.5 million people only save money for short-term goals and about 3 million describe themselves as ‘frivolous spenders’ - making purchases based solely on desirability rather than affordability.  For every financially aware person there are two frivolous spenders who spend for today with no thought to tomorrow - the buy now, think later culture.

Half the population (52%) could survive financially for just 17 days, should they suffer an unexpected loss of income, according to research by Combined Insurance.

Thank you to Oliver Downing of The Insolvency Network for this information.www.insolvencynetwork.co.uk