The 2025 Scottish Friendly Family Finance Tracker, an annual snapshot of the investing and savings habits of UK households, shows that despite a growing awareness of the importance of saving and investing, particularly amongst parents, the rising cost of living remains prohibitive for many. When it comes to putting something away for the future, even less is being put away compared to last year.

The modern mutual, which is pushing for a change in the rules to allow other family members to set up a Junior ISA on a child’s behalf, is building an evidence bank in support of the case for making the proposed change become a reality. The Family Finance Tracker data will play a key role in that.

The full report contains a wealth of data and can be accessed here – Scottish Friendly | ISAs, Insurance, Savings & Investments. Of particular note:

• 2,511 UK adults were interviewed about their finances in the first 3 months of 2025 (Jan – March 2025) and between March 2024 and March 2025.
• This included 767 parents of children under 18 who were interviewed to understand their views on Junior ISAs (JISAs), the factors influencing their decisions to open these accounts, and their views on reforms to make them more accessible.
• The findings show demand for a change to the rules on who can open a JISA. That demand comes from both parents and from extended family, in particular from grandparents. 
  28% of the general population would consider setting up a JISA for a child that is not their own if the rules were changed to allow other family members to do so. That rises to 31% for grandparents with a grandchild under 6 years old. 
• 28% of parents would like grandparents to be able to set up a JISA for their child, showing a strong desire for more flexible options in who can open these products. Just 5% of parents said they didn’t want anyone else setting up a Junior ISA for their child.
• 39% of UK adults had used a savings account in the first three months of 2025, 18% had paid into a cash ISA, 16% a pension and 9% a stocks and shares ISA.
• The main reasons people cited for opening or starting to use these products was that they had become more aware of the importance of saving (28%); the cost of living in the UK and energy price cap rises (25%); or they had a new specific goal in mind (24%). Most people gave one or two reasons. 
• Those with children were more likely than those without to say they had become more aware of the importance of saving (32% vs 25%), or they had a new specific goal in mind (30% vs 21%) as a reason for saving more.
• Political and economic events had some influence on peoples saving and investing behaviour in the first few months of 2025. 11% said the political situation in the UK was the main reason they decided to open or start using a financial savings or investment product; 10% said the Monetary Policy Committee interest rate uncertainty; 5% said world events.
• Meanwhile 3% said the political situation in the USA was the driver. Tax year end was a driver for only 8% of respondents. 

Scottish Friendly savings specialist Kevin Brown said: “Families across the UK are facing a perfect storm of rising costs, flatlining incomes and ongoing economic uncertainty – our Family Finance Tracker clearly shows a growing understanding of the importance of saving and investing but circumstances, for parents in particular, stop them from being able to act on it. 

“This is why we believe a small change in the Junior ISA rules could help to make a big difference for many children across the UK who don’t currently have a JISA product set up for them.

“We are now proactively calling on the government, as it looks at ISA reform more generally, to grasp this opportunity to help set more children on the path to greater financial resilience with the help of extended family – many of which our research shows are clearly willing to step up to help out.”