CANCELLED: Self-employment forum: how can we save for the future?

The RSA is coming to Cambridge to hear your stories of self-employment and saving for the future. We want to hear your experiences to inform our research on what constitutes good work today.

 This event will take the format of an RSA Salon. Inspired by the salons and coffeehouses of the Enlightenment, there will be a combination of presentations, plenary debates and breakout sessions to stimulate discussion. This is a participatory event; everyone is welcome and warmly encouraged to contribute.

Background

Growing self-employment and an innovative start-up culture has changed our relationship with pensions and savings. Just 17 percent of those who work for themselves make contributions to a scheme compared with 62 percent of employees. The RSA is seizing the opportunity to take action and address the growing pensions gap - join us as we work together to try and come up with solutions to this emerging problem.

The UK is fast becoming a self-employed nation with cities like Cambridge leading the way. The number of people who work for themselves has grown by 40 percent since 2000, and close to half of all jobs growth in the past decade is owed to people starting up in business. Cambridge has a unique blend of higher education excellence and an innovative entrepreneurial culture, which has led to a higher than average concentration of start-ups in the city and a £2.1 billion digital tech turnover.

RSA research has shown that few self-employed people are saving into a private pension, and those closest to retirement in the 55-64 year old age bracket have £89,500 saved on average, around half the amount stowed away by those in salaried work. Conversely, self-employment is making up a larger share of those in work than ever before and this figure is set to grow, making it an important issue for everyone to tackle in concert.

The RSA is coming to Cambridge to crowdsource innovative ideas from Fellows and others interested in tackling this growing issue. This event is part of our Venturing to Retire project, which has been supported by the online marketplace Etsy.

Location: The Hauser Forum, 3 Charles Babbage Rd, Cambridge CB3 0GT