Monzo and pension provider Nest have launched a joint project to explore how digital banking tools could help more self-employed people save for retirement.

The initiative, run in collaboration with the Centre for Inclusive Money at Nest, will examine whether making pension saving simpler and more automated can encourage greater participation among the UK's 4.4 million self-employed workers. The findings will be shared with the government's Pensions Commission to support its review of retirement outcomes, due in 2027.

According to the organisations, only 17 per cent of self-employed people currently save into a pension, compared with almost 90 per cent of eligible employees. While three-quarters of self-employed workers say saving for retirement is important, they do not benefit from automatic enrolment and often face irregular incomes, making long-term saving more difficult.

The Centre for Inclusive Money at Nest, which rebranded from Nest Insight earlier in the month, will combine its research into retirement saving with Monzo's experience supporting sole traders through Monzo Business.

The project builds on the Centre's multi-year programme exploring ways to increase pension saving among self-employed workers. Recent research suggests that “default savings” models, which automate contributions while allowing users to opt out, could help improve retirement saving without removing flexibility.

Monzo said it has already seen strong uptake of automated savings tools. More than two million customers signed up to its automated Savings Challenge earlier this year, and the programme collectively saved its customer base more than £350 million through the initiative in 2025. Monzo Business customers also used its automated Tax Pots feature to set aside £450 million last year to cover future tax bills .

The organisations will now explore whether similar behavioural design principles can encourage retirement saving through a customer initiative with Monzo Business.

“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,” said Jordan Shwide, general manager at Monzo Business. “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.”

The project comes as the second UK Pensions Commission identifies low pension participation among self-employed workers as one of the most urgent challenges facing the UK's pensions system.

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