An increasing number of people either don’t have any savings, or make no savings month on month, a study has found.

The NS&I Quarterly Savings Survey’s latest figures, for Winter 2015/16, showed that as many as 16% of Britons did not have any savings, with women leading this trend – 18%, while 14% of men admitted to not having any savings.

These latest figures represented the highest numbers over the financial year, and were far higher than those recorded this time last year.

Almost a quarter of Britons (23%) said they did not put any money into savings month on month and the gender split is fairly equal between men (22%) and women (24%). These were the highest levels seen over the course of this financial year and were significantly higher than those recorded in Winter 2014/15.

Despite this, Britons have been saving more in monetary terms than ever before.

The last financial year was the healthiest for savings since the Quarterly Savings Survey records began in Autumn 2004, NS&I has revealed.

In 2015/16, Britons saved, on average, 8% of their average income each month, a shade behind the record 8.04% saved in the 2014/15 financial year overall.

In terms of cash saved, however, they saved £1 more over the year, putting aside £107 each month, representing the highest amount saved per head over the course of a year since NS&I’s Quarterly Savings Survey started over 11 years ago.

In Summer 2015, a fifth of Britons reckoned they were more or much more likely to save money over the next quarter, and overall 78% said they were likely to maintain or increase their level of savings.

These forecasts proved to be correct, NS&I said, as there was an increase leading into Autumn last year, with Britons saving, on average, 8.18% as a percentage of their average income and £110 as an average saved per head.

The recent trend over the last five years of the Quarterly Savings Survey showed that Winter’s savings levels tended to be higher than Autumn’s, and this has also proved to be the case this year: Britons, by the end of the financial year, were saving 8.27% as a percentage of their income each month, but the monetary figure saved remained relatively static at £109.

Women were found to be saving more, on average, as a percentage of their income each month than men.

Month on month, women have saved continually more, while men’s savings levels have fluctuated over the year.

Women finished 2015/16 saving more as a percentage of their income in Winter 2015/16 (8.68%) than at any point since the Quarterly Savings Survey began in the 2004/05 financial year.

This equated to £95 saved in Winter 2015/16, a rise in total of £3 since the start of the year and the second highest monetary figure saved for women ever recorded, only topped by last Winter’s (2014/15), £100.

Jill Waters, retail director at NS&I, said: “Traditionally we have seen that men have been the stronger savers, but now women are putting more of their income away each month. We are seeing that this is causing an upward trend in overall savings levels and hope that this continues in the years to come.”