Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to increase the number of households that have financial reserves to cover basic costs for three or more months.

It is important that consumers have sufficient financial resilience to be able to manage short-term shocks to income or expenditure to help avoid these events causing them to fall into financial difficulty or problem debt.

The Government is committed to supporting people at all income levels and at all stages of life to save, including working families and individuals on low incomes, to put money aside for a rainy day. The Help to Save scheme was launched in September 2018 and is intended to support working people on low incomes and in receipt of certain benefits to build their financial resilience while also encouraging them to develop a regular, long-term savings habit.

The Government has also agreed to maintain record levels of debt advice funding for the Money and Pension Service in 2021-22 to help people in problem debt get their finances back on track.