# £43 billion of UK wealth hidden in Premium Bonds, says Giving Insight

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/07/18/43-billion-uk-wealth-hidden-premium-bonds-says-giving-insight/
- Published: 2012-07-18T09:57:45+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Research-led fundraising consultancy Giving Insight reports that £43 billion of 
the UK public’s personal wealth is invested in Premium Bonds. As such it is not 
always taken into account by fundraising prospect researchers.

The information is contained in the first of a series of reports it is producing
looking at hidden wealth in the UK.

Using data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the report features “never
before seen data on holdings across the whole of the UK.”

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Giving Insight’s Matt Ide hopes that the data will show that “there’s more to wealth
estimation than salaries, property and shares”. Given that 23 million people in 
the UK own Premium Bonds, this could be a big gap.

For example, the report shows the wealth invested in Premium Bonds in Essex: the
total Premium Bonds held amount to around £1.7 billion. In addition, nearly 21,000
people in the county hold the £30,000 maximum permitted investment.

In the report, Ide explains why outdated restrictions are preventing charities from
accessing this wealth directly.

## Top five areas of maximum Premium Bond holdings

According to the report, the five areas with the largest number of inhabitants holding
the maximum £30,000 in Premium Bonds are:

• Outer London (46,808)

• Essex (20,967)

• Hampshire (21,160)

• Surrey (20,282)

• Kent (19,181)

## Areas by average holding per account

When the average holding per account is examined though the top areas are quite 
different, apart from Outer London:

• Surrey (£2,891)

• West Sussex (£2,772)

• Dorset (£2,736)

• Buckinghamshire (£2,570)

• East Sussex (£2,544)

## Premium Bonds and fundraising

Ide notes that Premium Bonds don’t feature in charity fundraising appeals. This 
is probably because they are not transferable, and charities are not allowed to 
buy or hold Premium Bonds. But he encourages fundraisers to remember that there 
are other sources of wealth, not just those seen in published rich lists.

He also suggests that the charity sector might like to investigate whether Premium
Bonds might be made easier to donate to charity.

The report (PDF) can be downloaded at no charge.

www.givinginsight.org

 * **[Wealth-X publishes World Ultra Wealth-Report 2012-13](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/09/17/wealthx-publishes-world-ultra-wealthreport-201213/)**(
   17 September 2012)
 * **[WealthWatch](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/11/28/wealthwatch-474/)** (28 
   November 2012)
 * **[Companies House documents are now available on Duedil](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/01/24/companies-house-documents-are-now-available-duedil/)**(
   24 January 2013)