A report from Charter Savings Bank revealed more than an fifth (21%) of UK adults with savings earn 0.5% interest or less on their main savings account.

With the average UK savings pot totaling £8,500, this equates to average annual interest of just £43 before tax.

These savers are earning only slightly more in interest than the 174,000 UK adults who keep the majority of their savings in an unsecured place, such as under mattresses or in shoe boxes.

To give an idea of the scale, the Bank of England recently estimated that UK homes have £3bn of cash stashed away.

The research also revealed that while saving is a habit for the UK, many are simply not engaging with their hard-earned money: nearly a third (32%) of UK adults with savings admitted they do not know the current rate of interest on their main savings account, while almost a fifth (17%) admit to having never checked the rate on their primary savings account.

Paul Whitlock, director of savings at Charter Savings Bank, said: “High street banks are offering little more to the UK than a secure mattress for their savings, and with news that more than 400,000 NS&I savers will see interest rates on their Isas cut, it’s no surprise UK savers have themselves lost interest in their savings. People are simply not aware of how much harder their money could be working for them and so have become apathetic to taking their money from under their mattress, or from out of their High Street bank.”

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