My sister, Abby Hewitson, 48, who goes by the name DJ Philly, has been working for herself for 26 years. In that time she has DJ’d for King Charles, Angelina Jolie and George Clooney, and for brands including Chanel, Gucci, Maserati and MTV. She has built a successful career, paid her taxes, navigated the pandemic, and kept her business going through every economic storm the past quarter-century has thrown at her. What she did not do, until last month, was start a pension.
“When you’re employed, there’s a whole infrastructure around you: a pension scheme, an HR department, a boss. When you’re self-employed, you wake up and you are on your own,” she says. “As well as the day job you are the social media manager, the accountant and your own business manager. There is very little bandwidth left to think: what else should I be doing?”
Abby is far from alone. There are currently around 4.4 million self-employed workers in the UK, making up roughly 13 per cent of the workforce, up from 3.3 million in 2001. New Government data published this week reveals that only 4 per cent of self-employed workers are actively saving into a pension, a figure that has shocked even those who study this issue closely. For context, 82 per cent of employees are enrolled in a workplace pension scheme. The gap between those two numbers represents one of the most significant, and most overlooked, financial crises in modern Britain.
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Navigating hot and sticky weather is often a sensory and social nightmare
With summer approaching,
Dr Adil Sheraz of the British Association of Dermatologists, explains why we sweat and
what we can do about it.
Monica Garcia, 65, swelters in Madrid’s first heatwave of the summer (Photo: Isabel Infantes/ Reuters)
Why do we sweat?
Sweating is an important part of thermoregulation. When you sweat and it evaporates off the skin, it will take the latent heat with it.
We’re covered in three to four million sweat glands and the majority produce a sweat made up of just electrolytes and water. In other words, completely odourless.
These eccrine glands function from birth
to keep us cool.
When does sweat smell?
Oil in our sweat can suck in microplastics posing a health risk (Photo: Tom Williams/Getty)
- Glands in the armpit, groin and scalp operate differently.
- They’re under the control of hormones and the glands contain lipids and potentially fatty esters.
- The bacteria on our skin will
feed off these fatty acids and
lipids and cause the odour.
LIFESTYLE
6 min read
Are we sweating more now?
It is not just the weather impacts how we sweat…
- The bigger you are (in height, weight or muscle mass), the more surface area you will need to sweat on in order to cool down.
- This is why men tend to sweat more than women and why you sweat
more when you gain weight. - Medical conditions like diabetes
and thyroid problems will also
cause increased sweating. - Certain dietary items, including caffeine, processed foods and spicy foods can also trigger the chemicals in our body which cause us to sweat more.
When does it matter?
If it’s impacting your daily life, you will likely have some form of hyperhidrosis and need
to speak to a doctor to determine further.
- Primary hyperhidrosis is excessive sweating with no underlying cause.
- Secondary hyperhidrosis means there’s a condition or illness causing the sweating.
- There are two main ways to tell the difference.
- Sweating with secondary causes tends to happen all over the body rather than just localised to your palms or armpits.
- Primary hyperhidrosis tends to switch off when you’re sleeping as the neurons stop firing. This doesn’t happen with secondary hyperhidrosis.
How to manage sweat
Caption: Relaxed young woman in bright summer clothes is sitting on a bench on a city street with her eyes closed enjoying music through headphones from a smartphone.
Photographer: Tanja Ivanova
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
Clothing
Wear natural or wicking fabrics that prevent sweat patches, or clothes that are cooling for the skin.
Antiperspirant
One that contains aliminimium is advised as it’s well known for blocking and plugging our sweat ducts.
Caption: Woman applying deodorant roll on under armpit
Photographer: wing-wing
Provider: Getty Images
Source: iStockphoto
Britain’s best coffee shops have been revealed – spanning from the tip of Scotland to the bottom of England. (Photo: William Lailey / SWNS)
Dietary changes
Where possible
reduce dietary causes like caffeine and
spicy foods.
Can I save money without giving up fun?
When it comes to financial planning, I’ve always lived month to month, but recently I’ve wanted to be slightly more serious.
So I spoke to a range of financial experts for the easiest, idiot-proof ways to be savvier with money – without just hibernating.
The expert tips
Print out your bank statements
“This is the hardest step but you’ve got to know what’s coming in and out, down to the pound,” says financial coach Ian Dempsey. You’re more likely to remember what’s on there, and pay attention to it on paper.
Caption: Kasia Delgado reads old letters from her childhood.
A professor of happiness at Bristol University taught Kasia how adults can train themselves to be happier and find more joy, like when they were unencumbered children.
Photographer: mail@teripengilley.com
Provider: Teri Pengilley / i News
Source: Teri Pengilley
Caption: Kasia Delgado, Chief Features Writer, i News.
Photographer: Teri Pengilley
Provider: Teri Pengilley / i News
Source: Teri Pengilley
Draw an image of what you’re saving for
“Anything that requires discipline is much easier to achieve when you [can picture] the end goal,” says Ruth Power, from the Financial Management Bureau.
The expert tips
Experts are arguing that the UK should make greater use of existing government data
Photographer: Andrzej Rostek
Provider: Getty Images
Source: iStockphoto
Copyright: andrzejrostek@gmail.com
Go on a money date
If you’re in a relationship, for 30 minutes once a month, take a notebook to the pub/cafe and talk about money with your partner.
Delete shopping apps…
They are designed to be compulsive. Removing them gives you an extra layer of resistance.
Close up of an unrecognizable woman shopping online with credit card via mobile phone – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
An image of a hand that quickly sends an email – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
…and unsubscribe
Marketing emails are designed to reach you when you’re likely to spend money.
How it went when Kasia followed the expert advice
- I delete Vinted and only re-download it when I actively want to replace something for my son that he’s grown out of.
- I’m no longer buring my head in the sand. Sections of my bank statement flash into my mind when I go to use the Uber app.
- Money dates have been uncomfortable. We did have a small argument about buying own-brand beans versus Heinz for example, but scribbling down numbers we want to save has also been exciting.
- I have found it easier to be mindful about spending and broke some unhelpful habits, like associating walks with always getting a coffee.
How the UK currently saves
The average person in the UK has £16,067 in savings in 2025.
39%
However, 2 in 5 Britons have £1,000 or less in savings. A quarter have £200 or less.
1 in 6 UK adults (16 per cent) have no savings at all, equating to around 8.4 million people.
82%
Men are estimated to have 82 per cent more in savings than women.
Almost three in 10 (28 per cent) of adults state saving money is a habit.
The final verdict
The truth is, I’m never going to be someone with five side hustles and the financial savvy to become a bitcoin billionaire. But I’m no longer thinking, “where did my salary go?”. The small changes have, over time, made a difference to my bank account, but also my mind and self confidence.
KASIA DELGADO
‘I’ve found greater joy in spending money in an active, more conscious way – on things that felt worth it such as a massage, a cocktail with a friend, a comedy gig, a tricycle for my son,’ says Delgado (Photo: Teri Pengilley/The i Paper)
Six easy swaps to increase your fibre intake
We asked the experts why it’s so important to include enough fibre in our diets, and how to do it without totally overhauling our diets…
Why fibre is important
Fibre isn’t a fad nutrient. It’s been consistently linked to better health outcomes for decades. Unlike protein, which the majority of people already get enough of, fibre is something most of us (96 per cent) are significantly lacking.
NICHOLA LUDLAM-RAINE, SPECICIALIST REGISTERED DIETITIAN AND AUTHOR
The small diet tweaks to make
Beans, lentils and chickpeas are fibre powerhouses, with around 6-8g per half-tin. If you find beans tricky to digest, start with microdosing them for a week and gradually build it up to half a can at a time.
Bread is the category of food that is most thrown away, survey finds (d3sign
Provider: Getty Images)
Caption: Green vegetable salad with chickpea, spinach, cucumber, red onions, and greens on a wooden table. Top view
Photographer: Qwart
Provider: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Source: iStockphoto
One of the simplest changes you can make is to switch to wholegrain versions of everyday carbs. Swapping two slices of white bread for wholemeal adds around 3g of fibre.
How to add fibre to your diet
When you cook potatoes the right way they go from being a health burden to a health hero (Photo: Getty)
Keep some skin
The skin of some foods can contain up to 50 per cent of the total fibre. Just make sure it’s safe to eat.
Level up the snacks
Berries, raw vegetables with hummus, or a small handful of nuts are all easy fibre wins.
Yoghurt and frozen berry crunch in a glass jar – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Breakfast cereals can be swapped out for overnight oats (Photo: Jogy Abraham/ Getty Images)
Don’t skip seeds
Ludlam-Raine adds a spoon of mixed seeds to porridge, cereal, yoghurts, soups and salads.
EASY WAYS TO ADD FIBRE TO YOUR DIET
Add in, don’t take away
Plant-Based Anti-Inflammatory Diet Ingredients Flat Lay – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
A few extra handfuls of fibre-rich ingredients might be all that’s needed to take your meals from average to fibre-full.
Small changes are key because they’re more sustainable and better tolerated by the gut. Increasing fibre too quickly can cause bloating or discomfort.
One in four people in the UK is living with mould and/or damp in their home…
David Prince, a leading damp surveyor who travels across the country treating mould, spends the day with The i Paper writer Eleanor Peake.
Surveyor David Prince warns people are being overcharged by rogue companies for unnecessary treatment (Photo: Teri Pengilley)
The UK
Britain’s damp problem is one of the worst in Europe.
45%
Private renters are disproportionately affected, with 45 per cent currently battling symptoms of damp.
30%
From 2015 to 2024, British winters were 16 per cent wetter than in previous years.
By 2070, UK winters are projected to be up to 30 per cent wetter.
The house I visited with David Prince – a private rental
Renters are desperate for a resolution to their ongoing damp issue.
- David notes that although the bathroom has an extractor fan, the room wasn’t being ventilated efficiently.
- The hot air from the bathroom was floating towards the coldest part of the building (the bedroom) and turning into water as it hit the cold bedroom walls.
- This was an internal ventilation issue, other houses have an external issue. When the guttering is overgrown the water has to go somewhere else, sometimes seeping back into the brick.
The houses most at risk
Victorian terraces, or those built in the 1910s, are more likely to have rising damp – where the water seeps through the foundation of the house.
Caption: David Prince, Director of Abbott Property Care Ltd.
For a feature on damp by Eleanor Peake, Senior Features Writer at The i Paper.
Photographer: Teri Pengilley
Provider: Teri Pengilley / The i Paper
Source: Teri Pengilley
Caption: David Prince, Director of Abbott Property Care Ltd.
For a feature on damp by Eleanor Peake, Senior Features Writer at The i Paper.
Photographer: Teri Pengilley
Provider: Teri Pengilley / The i Paper
Source: Teri Pengilley
Modern houses are often built with concrete ring beams, one of the coldest materials to build with. The damp turns to condensation just by hitting the walls.
Damp specialists
Caption: Eleanor Peake, Senior Features Writer at The i Paper, meets David Prince, Director of Abbott Property Care Ltd, to examine the issue of damp in rental properties.
Photographer: Teri Pengilley
Provider: Teri Pengilley / The i Paper
Source: Teri Pengilley
Only a small number of damp specialists – around 250 – are registered with the Property Care Association (PCA) in the whole of the UK.
This means that a majority of people in the UK are receiving quotes and recommendations about damp from building surveyors who aren’t qualified to give a diagnosis, says Prince.
The golden rules for managing damp
The most common issues can be solved by simple tweaks.
- Start with the outside. When it’s raining, have a walk around your building to see if the gutters are pouring water down the wall, or water is being trapped in some way.
- Make sure you have good ventilation in key wet rooms: kitchen, bathroom, utility, and toilets.
- Open all your windows every day for a short period of time to force natural ventilation – even on cold days.
- Never place furniture, or even pictures, on an external wall if it suffers from mould. It helps retain moisture.
Woman awaking after sleeping well in a nice sleeping room. – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
SLEEP
How to reset your sleep
Irregular sleep has been linked with poorer cardiovascular health, metabolic disruption, inflammation and mood imbalances.
If your sleep has fallen out of whack, this is what the experts recommend.
From personalised ‘sleep windows’ to unhelpful bedtime routines.
Consistency in bedtimes
It helps the brain feel safer and more predictable around sleep, which is important for people with insomnia. When sleep and wake times are consistent, that clock stays well aligned. When sleep timing is all over the place, the body clock becomes confused…
dr ZOE GOTTS, CONSULTANT CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST AT THE LONDON SLEEP CENTRE
Couple sleeping in bed – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
The changes to make
Sleep tourism in hotel. Exhausted woman sleeps sweetly in bed in the morning – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Find your sleep window
When do you naturally start to feel tired? Aim to allow your body to sleep within that timeframe most nights.
Wake at the same time
Pick a wake-up time you can stick to and anchor everything around that, says Dr David Garley, sleep expert.
Sleep doesn’t have to be so complicated (Photo: Olga Pankova/Getty)
Caption: TOPSHOT – NASA’s Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is seen at sunrise at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on April 1, 2026. On Wednesday three men and one woman are set to embark on the first crewed journey to the Moon since 1972, a landmark odyssey that aims to launch the US into a new era of space exploration. The NASA mission dubbed Artemis 2 has been years in the making after facing repeated setbacks, but is finally scheduled to take off from Florida as early as April 1 at 6:24 pm (2224 GMT). (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: GREGG NEWTON
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Copyright: AFP or licensors
Get out into sunlight
Exposing yourself to daylight soon after waking helps to sync your circadian rhythm, says Dr Garley.
How to reset your sleep
Regulate your nervous system
Many people are running on exhaustion but still in a state of high alert, so might not be able to rest when needed, says Dr Gotts.
Gentle routines, reduced evening stimulation, and calming the body can make a huge difference.
Sleep tourism in hotel. Exhausted woman sleeps sweetly in bed in the morning – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Senior bed woman problem pain headache home elderly mature pain bedroom upset unhappy female caucasian adult relationship retirement old difficulty ache head sick migraine hangover sleep – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Don’t spend too long in bed
If you cannot sleep within 20 minutes, get out of bed, ideally out of the bedroom, and find a relaxing and distracting activity to do while you wait for the natural urge to return.
The tweaks to make to reset sleep
(Photo: AzmanL/Getty/E+)
Look at your bedtime
Don’t presume earlier to bed (ie. more time in bed) equals better sleep. The timing needs to fit you.
It might mean going to bed later
Set an alarm to anchor the wake-up time, then choose a bedtime that allows you to fall asleep easily and aim to sleep solidly within that time.
Woman in bed at night having trouble sleeping. – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
A mature woman lies in bed and reads a hardback book – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Don’t overdo it
Too much preparation can increase pressure around sleep so a short and consistent routine is far more effective.
Weight training has a host of benefits, but only if it’s done correctly.
We asked personal trainers the common mistakes that people make when lifting – especially for the first time or early on in their strength journey – and how to avoid them.
Woman lifting barbell with heavy weights in cross training gym – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Priotising weight over form
When the load is too heavy, form usually breaks down, the wrong muscles take over, and the risk of injury goes up. If you can’t control the lowering part of the movement, keep good posture, or move through the full range, you’re compromising.
CELEBRITY TRAINER AND PT AIMEE LONG
The mistakes you could be making
Close up of male athlete gripping heavy green kettlebell during strength training exercise in cross training gym – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Not progressing
If you’re reaching for the same pair of dumbbells each week you’re likely just maintaining muscle, not building.
The wrong trainers
You need adequate support for your ankles, without overly cushioning your arches.
Find the best shoes for you (Photo: Xavier Lorenzo/Getty/Moment RF)
Woman at the Gym – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Not timing your rest
PT Nancy Best’s advice is to take 90 seconds of downtime before picking your weight back up.
Research has found that strength training can help slow bone loss
(Photo: FJ Jimenez/Moment RF
via Getty)
Neglecting recovery
Progress does not happen during the workout itself; it happens afterwards when your body repairs and rebuilds.
Poor sleep, not eating enough calories or protein, or training the same muscles hard every single day can hinder recovery and leave you constantly exhausted, says Long.
Not choosing the right exercises
An effective programme is built around variety.
- Ensure your training includes each movement for the upper and lower body.
- PT Luke Worthington recommends a push/pull programming.
- Upper body push targets the shoulders or chest and upper body pull typically works the back.
- Lower body push includes squats and leg press whereas pulls include deadlifts and hinges.
What to do
- Perfect the movements before increasing the weight.
- Best recommends Nike Metcons or Converse for a flat, stable surface.
- Aim to eat 1.4-2g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight if you’re regularly exercising.
- When you’re comfortable you can increase the weight, number of sets or reps, or range of motion to progress each lift.
LIFESTYLE
6 min read
The eight biggest mistakes we make
when retiring
Psychologist and author Dr Denise Taylor says we shouldn’t sleepwalk into retirement, nor stop walking, just because everyone else has.
Denise Taylor’s marriage ended at 60 as the structure of the working day faded away (Photo: Mihai Zsigmond)
The mistakes we make when retiring
The man is currently drawing a small defined benefit (DB) pension (Photo: SimpleImages/Getty)
Hoarding money
Many clients tell me their biggest regret was spending too little when they were healthiest and most able to enjoy it.
Planning to rest
Boredom in retirement is misunderstood. It’s rarely about having nothing to do. It’s about having time without meaning.
Naps before 1pm can lead to better cognitive performance in the following hours (Photo: Lord Henri Voton/Getty Images)
Photographer: Lourdes Balduque
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
Copyright: Lourdes Balduque
Not mentally preparing
People prepare financially and practically, but don’t do the psychological work of leaving well.
Waiting to plan what’s next
Once the structure of work disappears, people can slip into a narrower way of being. Start sketching out possible paths at least two years ahead. Even rough ideas about what you might want to explore – creative projects, volunteering, learning.
DR DENISE TAYLOR
Denise Taylor has worked with many clients who moved into ‘purposeful’ roles expecting to feel better, only to be more depleted than before
(Photo: Ilona Gierach)
Common mistakes she sees
‘I know it’s a minor thing but it makes me feel unheard and ignored’ (Photo: PonyWang/Getty)
Not preparing as a couple
Discuss how much time you want together, and what kind of lives you’re moving towards, rather than assuming it will naturally align.
Trying to stay busy
Without noticing what drains your energy, activity becomes a way of bypassing the deeper adjustment.
Remember to care for your lawn (Photo: RHS / Tim Sandall)
Senior bed woman problem pain headache home elderly mature pain bedroom upset unhappy female caucasian adult relationship retirement old difficulty ache head sick migraine hangover sleep – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Treating it as an ending
People can find themselves psychologically stranded. Days begin to blur into one another.
Retiring because everyone else is
For a generation raised to expect retirement at a certain age, default timing can feel normal.
The timing is personal.
Portrait of senior man at desktop computer in home office – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
The mistake is retiring without questioning whether that timing actually fits your own life. It ignores your relationship with work, your health and your finances.
Agony Uncle
5 min read
What to do
- 1For some a gradual shift is best like working fewer days or changing role, slowing down.
- 2Experiment before you leave. Taking a sabbatical or reducing hours can show you how retirement might feel.
- 3Prioritise a small number of meaningful anchors: one regular commitment, one place where you feel known and one activity.
- 4Slow it down psychologically – question default timing, resist expectations and ask yourself what kind of transition you are actually stepping into.
Sir David Attenborough is estimated to have travelled almost two million miles in his career, and has visited 90 countries and all seven continents in his quest to enhance our understanding of nature (Photo: Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage)
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH
The national treasure has celebrated his centenary
For all the inspiring insight into nature that Sir David Attenborough has given us, he has also shown us how to age well.
Here, Chief Features Writer Kasia Delgado looks into his lifestyle, and the tips he’s shared to live to 100.
Caption: Programme Name: Africa – TX: n/a – Episode: The Future (No. 6) – Embargoed for publication until: n/a – Picture Shows: SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH WITH A THREE MONTH OLD BLIND BLACK RHINO ??? LEWA WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY, KENYA – (C) BBC/David Chancellor – Photographer: David Chancellor
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LOREM IPSUM
Never retiring fully
Putting your feet up is all very well, but it’s very boring, isn’t it?
In the last two years alone, Attenborough has done voiceovers on a number of projects, including Wild London, and a National Geographic Disney film, Ocean.
Although his workload has remained high, he did acknowledge in 2017, that as he ages, he sometimes finds it harder to recall correct words as quickly as he did before.
Improving his diet
In his 90s, Attenborough has cut back on red meat, and begun eating an increasingly vegetarian diet.
Whether as he said, he “simply lost the taste” for meat, or whether it was an environmental or health reason, the NHS advises that eating a lot of red and processed meat increases your bowel cancer risk at any age.
Caption: Fox Cub BBC Wild London 2026 Attenborough Screenshot
Big Read
7 min read
Keeping active
Caption: Sir David Attenborough visits the London Wetland Centre in west London where he launched his new campaign to raise public awareness to help reverse the butterfly decline, urging the public to plant butterfly-friendly flowers in their garden to help reverse declining numbers of the insects.
Photographer: Stefan Rousseau
Provider: PA
Source: PA Archive
- Attenborough has previously said he has “never done exercise” in an official capacity.
- But he has kept active by going for walks in Richmond, where he lives.
- Interviewers who have been to his home have also mentioned him practically skipping down the stairs of his house.
TELEVISION
8 min read
Avoiding becoming isolated
When Sir David’s wife Jane died in 1997, the couple’s adult daughter Susan moved in with her father. He said at the time: “I’m quite used to solitude in the wilds but, no, an empty house is not what I enjoy.”
Caption: TELEVISION PROGRAMMES: THE QUEENS GREEN PLANET
Monday 16th April 2018 on ITV
Sir David Attenborough joins Her Majesty the Queen in the gardens of Buckingham Palace
This unique, landmark documentary follows Her Majesty the Queen and an ambitious legacy project to create a global network of protected forests, spanning the 52 countries of the Commonwealth.
This project, called the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy, brings together Her Majesty’s deeply held commitment to the Commonwealth and her little-known love of trees.
At the heart of the film is a conversation between the Queen and Sir David Attenborough filmed in the gardens of Buckingham Palace last summer. In a rare opportunity to see the Queen talking informally to Sir David, the conversation ranges from climate change, to conkers and birthday gifts.
The film follows members of the Royal Family involved so far in making the Queen?s Commonwealth Canopy a reality, including Prince Harry planting trees in the Caribbean, and Prince William and his family in Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest.
(c) ITN Productions
For further information please contact Peter Gray
0207 157 3046 peter.gray@itv.com
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Sir David Attenborough during the event marking his 100th birthday today at the Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC Studios Natural History Unit/Buckingham Palace)
He’s also been known to respond personally to fan letters and maintain relationships with people who admire him. He has no iPhone or email address and instead prefers to communicate by handwritten letter.
Appreciating small things
It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living
Caption: Veteran broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough with an Australian bearded dragon after receiving an honorary degree from Queen’s University in Belfast for exceptional services to science and broadcasting.
Photographer: Paul Faith
Provider: PA
Source: PA Archive
It is also one of the most predictable as the collapse in their pension savings did not happen overnight. In 1998, 48 per cent of self-employed workers contributed to a private pension, roughly the same rate as employees. By 2018, that figure had crashed to 16 per cent, and it has continued to fall. The decline reflects a self-employed workforce that skewed increasingly younger and lower-earning over that period. Keeping money accessible became the priority: stockpiling against lean months, covering the tax bill. For many, locking money away for decades simply was not realistic.
What widened the gap into a chasm was automatic enrolment. Introduced in 2012, it transformed retirement saving for employees while leaving the self-employed untouched. Under auto-enrolment, employees receive a minimum 3 per cent contribution from their employer on top of their own 5 per cent, plus government tax relief. What tax relief means is that for every £1 a basic-rate taxpayer puts in, the government adds 20p; for higher-rate taxpayers, that rises to 40p. The genius was recognising that retirement feels abstract and the present feels urgent — and that most of us, left to our own devices, will choose the present every time. Not only were employees rescued from their own worst instincts, they did not need to suddenly understand pensions to have one.
Another bonus is that rather than asking workers to opt in, auto-enrolment enrolled everyone automatically, making inertia work in people’s favour for the first time. Self-employed people get none of this: no employer top-up, no tax relief, no automatic set-up, no rescuing.
“I don’t think your average freelancer is aware that by keeping savings in an ISA rather than a pension, you are giving up on free money from the government,” says Abby, who lives in north London and has two children, aged 12 and 20. “I certainly wasn’t, and I think that needs to be made much clearer. I’m not suggesting we need billboards on the motorway, but writing to us clearly and explaining how to open a pension would be a start. The government knows I’m self-employed. They have all my details, they tax me, they know everything. Surely they can do something with that.”
She tries not to think too hard about the future, “because when I do I feel worried, but I also recognise I own a home and others are in a worse position than me. A lot of people I know who are self-employed are petrified about what is going to happen when they retire.”
It is often assumed that the self-employed pay less tax and should therefore fund their own safety net. National insurance, the levy that funds state benefits including the state pension, is lower for the self-employed: employees pay 8 per cent on earnings between £12,571 and £50,270, while self-employed workers pay 6 per cent. The full picture, though, is more complicated. Self-employed workers have no statutory sick pay, no redundancy protection, no employer pension contribution and maternity entitlement that can be as low as £27 a week. They also pay for everything employees receive for free: accountancy, insurance, equipment, training.
Isobel Saunders, 40, is a self-employed counsellor based in Norfolk. “People think of self-employed people as slightly dodgy, cash in hand, on the fiddle. They don’t think of people like me. We do pay less tax at source, yes. But we also pay professional fees, registration costs, insurance, things your employer covers if you’re employed. And when your health suffers, there’s no sick pay, no redundancy. You might make more money in the short we term. Longer term, it’s not always a great deal.”
Isobel came to the pension question via a more painful route. She had worked in lower-paid employed work, during which a small workplace pension was opened, funded almost entirely by her employer since her earnings were so modest. She then left to become a stay-at-home parent. When she returned to work, now self-employed, the pot contained just £2,500. “I didn’t save into a pension when I was raising my kids,” she says. “Because when you’re a mum and there’s no spare money, pensions just aren’t on the agenda.”
When Isobel Saunders returned to work after having children, she had £2,500 in her pension pot
It was a cluster of moments that finally woke her up. Her father died, and she started helping her mum with her finances. Watching her mother navigate life on the state pension alone brought the future into sharp focus. In 2021, while registering as self-employed and working through her tax return, she noticed a box asking about pension contributions. “I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a point.’” Around the same time, talk of scrapping the triple lock on the state pension had begun. The message landed. Whatever was coming, she could not rely on the government to provide it.
She opened a pension with PensionBee, an app that helps you consolidate savings and pensions. She consolidated her old £2,500 pot and began paying in what she could, sometimes £50, sometimes £100, depending on the month. “I do it ad hoc. I put in whatever I can afford.”
Last year, her mother died and left her an inheritance. Isobel put £100,000 straight into the pension. “I predicted I’d need around £400,000 to retire comfortably, and there’s no way on earth I could save that through contributions alone before I’m 65. So I thought: this is the best use of that money right now.” Her pot now stands at around £138,000. “It’s very reassuring to know there’s something there. With so much uncertainty, economically, politically, it feels like a buffer.”
The Social Market Foundation has proposed a straightforward fix — embedding a pension prompt into the self-assessment tax return that millions of self-employed workers already file each year — but the political will has been questioned. In July 2025, the Government revived the Pensions Commission, naming the self-employed as among those most at risk — but its report is not due until 2027. In the meantime, if current trends continue, 55 per cent of self-employed people will reach retirement with no private pension at all, leaving millions dependent on a state pension worth today around £11,500 a year.
“There’s a lot of fear in the freelance community, but no one knows how to channel it. The situation with pensions feels like Covid all over again: you realise you’re on the sidelines and everyone is focusing on the middle. Covid made it official that you weren’t the government’s concern, and you were on your own,” says Abby.
She currently has £500 in her pension. She started it last month. Better late than never, but she should not have had to wait 26 years to be shown the door.
“There’s no one to guide you, no one to nudge you,” says Isobel. “You have to figure it all out yourself. And most of us don’t, until something forces us to.”