The credit crunch is encouraging Britons to put away more money over fears they could lose their job or home, according to National Savings & Investments (NS&I) survey.

Over December, January and February people saved an average £90.12 per month, up from £86.35 in 2008, the largest amount since the survey began four and a half years ago.

In spite of the downturn, the number of people who put away money in savings each month in 2008 remained static at 47% of the population. Over half of these said that they were saving in case of an emergency, the NS&I survey of survey of more than 12,000 Britons revealed.

Dan Harkins, senior savings strategist at NS&I said, “It is clear that people are aware of the need to save more in these uncertain times and it is encouraging that, despite additional pressures on incomes, the average value of people’s total savings was £17,443.”

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the UK economy shrank by 1.6% in the last three months of 2008. However, savings went up during this period. But the survey showed that 6 per cent of Britons did not save regularly and 13 per cent had no savings at all.

High levels of personal debt in Britain are thought to be a major factor behind the UK’s struggling economy, yet 32% of participants in the NS&I survey admitted spending more than they could afford each month.

“Not setting a budget can lead to overspending and the chance of potentially falling into debt,” the report said.

“Given the current economic climate, it is important that people put healthy savings practices in place to ensure they have enough rainy day money set aside.”

This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Banking, Budgeting, Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.