The Centre for Inclusive Money at Nest, formerly known as Nest Insight, has joined forces with Monzo, a UK digital bank serving over 15 million customers, in a bid to close the retirement savings gap among the country’s self-employed workforce.
The collaboration will investigate how banks can help sole traders put money away for later life, combining seven years of research from the Inclusive Money programme with Monzo’s track record of serving hundreds of thousands of business customers via Monzo Business. A central question for the project is whether simplifying retirement saving and making it more automatic can support self-employed people in building long-term financial security.
The scale of the challenge is stark. Of the UK’s 4.4 million self-employed people, only 17% currently pay into a pension, a figure that contrasts sharply with the nearly 90% participation rate among eligible employees.
Notably, this is not down to a lack of intent, with three-quarters of self-employed workers say setting aside money for retirement matters to them, roughly matching the proportion of employed people who say the same. The difference lies in mechanisms: employees benefit from automatic enrolment, while no equivalent exists for those working for themselves. Irregular and unpredictable earnings add a further layer of complexity. The second UK Pensions Commission’s interim report described self-employed pension participation as one of the most pressing issues facing the UK pensions system.
Monzo brings direct evidence that thoughtful design and automation can shift financial behaviour. In 2025, its customers collectively saved more than £360m through the automated Savings Challenge, prompting over 2 million sign-ups earlier this year. Monzo Business users also stored away £450m last year through automated Tax Pots designed for future tax bills. The new project will test whether comparable behavioural techniques can make pension saving more accessible for the self-employed.
For Inclusive Money, the tie-up marks the latest stage of a multi-year programme examining why self-employed saving rates are so low and trialling approaches tailored to this group’s needs. Its most recent research provides early evidence that ‘default savings’ models could offer a genuine answer, while retaining flexibility and choice for those unable or unwilling to save. The partners will now move these findings into a live setting through a customer initiative within Monzo Business.
Lessons from the work will shape future product development and will be passed to the UK Government’s Pensions Commission ahead of its review of retirement outcomes, expected in 2027.
Centre for Inclusive Money at Nest associate director of research and innovation Ruth Persian said, “Monzo’s approach to product design will help us take our research forward to the next step: moving from promising ideas to real-world solutions for real customers. We look forward to bringing together our combined expertise and finding solutions that work and support self-employed people to become more financially secure.”
Monzo Business general manager Jordan Shwide said, “Millions of self-employed people are missing out on the benefits of automatic retirement saving, despite many wanting to put money aside for the future. We’re excited to work with Inclusive Money to explore easy ways to help sole traders start building retirement savings and to contribute evidence that could help shape future policy. We want to help people build financial security and resilience, in line with our mission to make money work for everyone.”
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