Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM)

UK and US insights into precarious work and financial inclusion

CHASM has published the first two briefs from our joint project with the Centre for Social Development (CSD), Washington University in St. Louis, on work to understand the implications of precarious employment among lower-wage workers, as part of the Workforce Economic Inclusion and Mobility (WEIM) Project at CSD, which is funded by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Foundation. 

It is a pleasure to be working with Dr Matthieu Despard, who visited CHASM in 2022 on the CHASM International Visiting Fellowship Scheme, and his team on this project, ‘The Strengthening employment and financial inclusion for low-and moderate-income individuals and families’. CHASM’s research will consist of three briefing papers which will form part of a series of briefs produced for this project.

Dr Adele Atkinson, Dr Kris Fuzi and Dr Louise Overton from CHASM joined a roundtable policy event hosted by the Aspen Institute in Washington DC on 8^th July 2025 to compare and discuss research findings on the challenges confronting lower-wage workers in the U.S and the U.K. aimed at reaching a broad audience of people from across academic disciplines, policy and implementing partners.

CHASM is pleased to be holding a further online dissemination event, with input from CSD, Nest Insight and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Foundation on 14^th July, focussed on the findings of the first two CHASM briefs, with a further joint event planned in the autumn which will focus on a third brief detailing comparisons between the UK and US.

CHASM has undertaken in depth secondary analysis of data from the UK Money and Pensions Service Debt Need Survey to describe those people facing employment precarity. The study considers people to be facing employment precarity if they are work-ready but have low-moderate household income, and do not have long-term job security. It further differentiates between work status, making it possible to identify differences between those who face precarity due to unemployment or self-employment and those on precarious contracts.

The analysis suggests that, once other factors are taken into account, work-ready adults with low-moderate household income were more likely to be on a precarious contract if they were younger or older than 35-65; did not identify as White; had income slightly above the minimum; lived in larger households; and either owned their home outright or lived with family.

Income volatility was most common amongst the self-employed, but it was more problematic for precarious workers and the unemployed. Those on precarious contracts were more likely than others to be in arrears across a range of expenses. Even so, many were saving, and they were more likely than other adults in our sample to anticipate an improvement in their financial situation in the next year.

Defining and describing employment precarity in the UK context (2025). Adele Atkinson, Kristian Fuzi and Louise Overton

The financial health of precarious workers (2025). Adele Atkinson, Kristian Fuzi and Louise Overton