The discussions provided in the previous chapters suggested an unequal wealth composition, reinforcing inequalities inherent in a capitalist society between high-income earners and medium-to low-income earners. This chapter extends these insights and unveils how structural and normative constraints contribute to counter-conduct, that is, ‘the will not to be governed, thusly, like that’ (Foucault, 2007, p 75). In addition to the contradictions identified in the previous chapters, namely inherent uncertainty and income limitations, constraints built into the existing asset-based welfare system shape variegated financial subjectivities and practices.

Policy makers have increasingly realized that individuals do not invest as expected by asset norms. Even though the vast majority of eligible workers save in workplace pensions (84 per cent [DWP, 2018]), they do not actively engage with pensions, often saving only the minimum contributions (see Chapter 5), and when excluded from workplace pensions due to earning a low income or being self-employed, they do not conduct voluntary contributions (DWP, 2017, 2018). Not actively engaging with financial products has been identified in behavioural economic and financial literacy campaigns as ‘irrational’ (Altman, 2012, p 680) and intensified the utilization of measures to nudge people into behaving as expected. Following financial literacy and behavioural economic insights (see Chapter 2), a plethora of financial education and money advice services have emerged, including a government-sponsored financial advice website (FinCap, 2021; MoneyHelper, 2023b). These initiatives reinforce individual responsibility, seeking to make behavioural changes without recognizing the impact of factors outside an individual's control, such as structural and normative constraints. Women in the UK, for instance, are on average paid 19.9 per cent less than men (Eurostat, 2022) and normative assumptions of task divisions within the household impact the time they can offer to the labour market, both ultimately impacting the ability to sufficiently contribute to pensions (Loretto and Vickerstaff, 2013).

While asset-based welfare has been criticized for its lack of attention to the context of financial decisions, too often the focus lies on either identifying deviations from assumptions of financially rational behaviour as irresponsible or non-strategic (Clark, 2010, 2014) or on highlighting how structural and normative constraints determine behaviour, thus, marginalizing everyday practices (Grady, 2015; Hamilton and Darity Jr, 2017).