IFS researchers showed that many lower income people already have some financial assets and that those without often appear to have good reasons for not saving. The Saving Gateway ¬– a policy to encourage lower income people to save by offering them a government “match” on any saving – risked being an expensive way of generating few new savers and little new savings. We recommended a pilot scheme be conducted to find out whether or not the policy would be effective.

The IFS evaluation of this scheme found no evidence of an increase in overall savings and limited evidence of account holders reducing their spending. The June 2010 Budget announced that the planned national rollout would be cancelled.