Precarious Lives and Financial Behaviour: An Investigation into the Impact of Insecurity on Saving and Pension Planning

In this thesis I examine how precarious work interacts with broader conditions of precarity in the United Kingdom (UK), and together come to influence workers' financial behaviours. Precarious working conditions have risen markedly in the last two decades, and include a lack of workers' rights, such as sick pay and holiday pay, and a lack of employer benefits, such as pension contributions. Research examining the interactions of precarious work with everyday life has investigated its encroachment on home life, gender differences, a sense of self and wellbeing, and social networks, but there has been little research seeking to understand the impact on financial behaviours. Moreover, research into financial behaviours is often approached from an individual characteristic perspective, rather than seeking to understand the wider societal inequalities at play. This thesis contributes to both these bodies of literature by investigating precarious work and financial behaviours from a contextual, relational, and interconnected perspective. The rise in precarious work coincides with a cost of living crisis and a UK pension context that favours permanent and long-term forms of employment, hitherto associated with men's working lives. This confluence of factors raises timely questions of how precarious lives can influence a sese of financial insecurity, whether this creates difficulties in pension saving, and if compounding gender differences exist. To fill the lacunae in our understandings of precarious work and financial behaviour, I investigate the following research questions. First, in what ways do precarious workers perceive economic, social, and cultural contexts to influence their conceptualisations of financial (in)security? Second, in what ways do precarious workers perceive their household relationships to influence their conceptualisations of financial (in)security? Third, how do these economic, social, cultural, and relational influences on financial (in)security interact and come to affect precarious workers' financial behaviour? I employ a mixed methodology of two semi-structured interviews and a financial diary to understand these issues. The findings of this thesis reveal that precarious workers face inconsistencies in their income, exposure to individualised risk, and a sense of transience in their work life. Moreover, the insecurity associated with working conditions is intensified by the uncertainty and costs associated with housing for both renters and homeowners. Through relational sociology, I evidence how relationships can intensify and/or resist experiences of insecurity; for example, supportive financial relationships can work to lessen workers' experience of insecurity. I apply these contextual insecurities to categorise workers' financial behaviours into three financial mindsets: surviving, securing, and saving. I present the argument that financial behaviours are grounded in everyday precarious contexts that shape precarious workers' financial mindsets and time perspectives, and therefore arrive at three conclusions. First, heightened contextual precarity means some workers are unable to engage in saving or pension planning behaviour. Second, workers who are engaging in saving behaviour are predominantly prioritising their savings for short-term needs. Third, in consequence very few precarious workers are engaging in pension saving that offers sufficient financial security in later life.