UK employees increasingly turning to share schemes to boost savings

The UK’s workforce saved an additional £40 million through company share schemes over the past year. This is one of the main findings to emerge from the annual Sharesave (SAYE) and Share Incentive Plan (SIP) Survey, carried out by ifs ProShare, which describes itself as ‘the voice for the employee share ownership industry’.

Boosted by the increased maximum monthly savings allowances in Sharesave schemes from £250 to £500, more than 1.4m employees are now saving an average of £122.94 a month in their company share scheme. This compares with 1.25m saving £107.76 the previous year.

• Following the government’s decision to raise monthly saving allowances, more than a fifth (21%) of employees have increased their contributions to SAYE or SIP.
• The total number of employees joining a SAYE scheme also rose to 576,538 from 378,420.
• The findings also reveal greater levels of staff retention among companies offering employee share schemes. The percentage of employees choosing to join a five-year contract has also risen at the expense of a three-year contract, with the former rising from 17.5% to 20%, while the latter fell from 82.5% to 80%.

Gabbi Stopp, Head of Employee Share Ownership at ifs ProShare, said:

‘These findings once again demonstrate the inherent value of employee share ownership to the economy, to productivity and to levels of savings throughout the UK. It is encouraging to see that recent changes introduced by HMRC and campaigned for by ifs ProShare have led to a greater uptake from employees deciding to participate in their companies’ share schemes. We will continue to make the case for employee share ownership, for our members and for employees of all companies up and down the country so that more people and the UK economy may continue to benefit from these schemes’ undoubted advantages.’

For more information about the survey and details of how both employers and their employees can introduce employee share ownership into their businesses, please visit: www.ifsproshare.org