Today, Tuesday 16 June, Her Majesty Queen Máxima, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health (UNSGSA), is attending the launch of the National Coalition for Workplace Savings at the offices of BlackRock in London, together with UK Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Blake. Prior to the launch, Queen Máxima will attend the Leveraging Data for Growth & Resilience roundtable with financial service providers, organised by the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology.
The National Coalition for Workplace Savings is headed by a steering group of 18 major employers from sectors including retail, hospitality, transport, facilities management, the public sector and charities. The coalition promotes employer-based savings schemes that enable households to regularly set aside money and build a financial buffer. This way people can cover unexpected costs, save up for major expenses and increase their financial resilience.
As part of the plenary programme, Queen Máxima will have a ‘fireside chat’ with Jo Phillips, Director of Research and Innovation at Nest Insight. This public-benefit research and innovation centre focuses on improving the financial health of low- and middle-income groups. Queen Máxima will speak about the importance of sharing successful approaches within the new national coalition and of making financial health measurable. Several employers and policy-makers will share their experiences of salary savings schemes and compare the United Kingdom’s approach to those in other countries. A number of employees will speak about the positive impact this way of saving has had on their financial health, including reduced stress and work absence. In December 2024 Queen Máxima attended the Global Banking Summit in London in her capacity as UNSGSA. At this event she also spoke with a number of financial institutions and employers about workplace savings schemes and financial health.
After the plenary programme, Queen Máxima will have a number of bilateral meetings, including with the Economic Secretary to the Treasury and the Director-General of the Europe in Global Affairs Group in the UK Cabinet Office, Steve Field.
In the United Kingdom, financial health is increasingly being embedded in policy and regulations, in both the public and private sectors. The guiding principle is that financial services are designed in a way that boosts financial resilience and consumer confidence at individual level and promotes economic growth and financial stability at national level. The launch of the National Coalition for Workplace Savings is a concrete example of this.
As the honorary chair of the Netherlands Financial Health Foundation (SFGN) and the Money Wise Platform, Queen Máxima has been promoting financial health in the Netherlands for many years. On 23 April she visited the Dutch Ministry of Finance for the launch of a national savings campaign by SFGN and the Money Wise Platform and in 2022 she initiated the National Financial Health Coalition, a partnership that foster cooperation between employers.
Government Information Service, no. 178