The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has launched a marketing campaign to boost awareness of changes to how savings are protected.
The compensation body has partnered with podcaster Jake Humphrey to help savers understand how their savings are protected, particularly when they find themselves holding unusually large sums of cash following major life events such as pension transfers and inheritance.
The podcaster, founder and host of the High Performance podcast, calls on people to carry out a financial “health check”, including understanding how their savings are looked after.
The campaign has been timed to coincide with the end of the tax year, a time when many households review their finances.
The FSCS now protects from the first pound of savings up to £120,000 per person (since 1 December), per UK-authorised firm. There is also temporary high balance protection of up to £1.4m for six months after certain life events. This high balance protection increased from £1m from 1 December 2025. The protection limit does not apply to investments.
Life events that trigger the six month protection include selling a home, receiving an inheritance or drawing down a large pension sum.
New research from the industry-funded compensation body found that 28% of UK adults have received, or know someone who has received, a lump sum of £120,000.
It estimates that over 5m people in the UK have had the experience of receiving a lump sum.
A third (32%) of respondents said they would feel overwhelmed, anxious or vulnerable if they received a large lump sum of money. Three in ten (30%) of respondents said they would not know what would happen to the money if the provider holding it went out of business.
• Ipsos surveyed 2,419 UK adults on behalf of the FSCS between 23 and 29 January.