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Consulting Work on Savings-- United Kingdom

A Global Assets Project Initiative

In June 2000, Global Assets Project co-director Michael Sherraden advised UK Treasury officials on asset building as an anti-poverty strategy, and made speeches on this topic with David Blunkett, Secretary for Employment and Education. In January 2001 the Center for Social Development (CSD) co-sponsored with the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) an international meeting on “Asset-Based Welfare” in London (Regan and Paxton, 2001). In 2001 Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed “progressive, universal” asset-based policies including a Child Trust Fund, a saving accounts for all UK children, with greater deposits for the poor; and Saving Gateway, matched savings for adults, a version of IDAs.

In September 2002, Sherraden spoke at a seminar at 10 Downing, sponsored by Prime Minister Tony Blair, and gave dinner speech at 11 Downing, hosted by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, on the proposed Child Trust Fund. CSD has met with researchers in the UK to consult on research strategies for the Saving Gateway.

In April 2003, Prime Minister Blair announced funding for a universal, progressive Child Trust Fund, an account for all newborns in the UK; officials in the Prime Minister’s Office and Treasury sent congratulatory notes crediting CSD research evidence and the September 2002 meetings with influencing this policy decision.