Monzo has partnered with the Centre for Inclusive Money at Nest to investigate how digital banking tools and behavioural design could increase retirement saving among the UK’s 4.4 million self-employed workers. The project will run a live customer initiative through Monzo Business, with findings intended for submission to the UK Government’s Pensions Commission ahead of its 2027 review. Only 17% of self-employed people actively save into a pension, compared with nearly 90% of eligible employees covered by automatic enrolment .
The project draws on seven years of research by the Centre for Inclusive Money at Nest, formerly Nest Insight. Its recent work found early evidence that opt-out default savings models could improve pension participation without removing flexibility for people unable to save. Monzo’s Savings Challenge and Business Tax Pots provide operational evidence that automated tools can generate substantial savings volumes among customers with variable cash flows.
The May 2026 interim report from the Pensions Commission described self-employed pension participation as one of the UK pensions system’s most urgent challenges. The original Commission’s reports helped shape auto-enrolment legislation introduced in 2012, so similar conclusions could support future legislative or regulatory action. The government has also consulted on extending automatic enrolment through HMRC self-assessment data.
Monzo holds full UK and European banking licences and serves more than 900,000 business customers. The immediate milestone is designing and launching the customer initiative through Monzo Business. The longer-term test is whether the evidence can inform the Commission’s 2027 report and support a durable product for sole traders.