ABOUT 14 million people could be encouraged to save more money if a national savings strategy was set up, a report from Which?

has found.

The consumer group wants the government to work with the industry and employers to "help get the UK saving".

It said possible ideas which could be discussed and tested out to see if they help people save could include automatically diverting someone's wages into a savings account.

Another suggestion could be to remove some of the dilemma that people have as to whether to save or to pay off some of their debt, by exploring how lenders could offer an option for depositing a "token" contribution into a savings account as part of the whole debt repayment process.