I'm back to my numbers again.
From tomorrow, the government is guaranteeing all bank deposits up to £50,000; currently the limit is £35,000. Actually I think even that limit is too low. I (once) had that much money sitting in the bank: when I inherited my dad's house and then sold it. There was only £100,000 there for a couple of weeks whilst I sorted out some investments but that would have left me £50,000 above the limit. Considering the price of houses these days, I would have thought we needed a much higher limit, say £300,000 or even more. Only for money you've had for perhaps a month, not just cash you are moving around mind you, otherwise it would be open to serious abuse.
What I do find fascinating about the announcement is that pushing up the rat from 35K to 50K, increases the protection for only one percent of savers. 97% of all savers are already covered by the lower limit. Clearly some of that 4% of savers will cover circumstances such as my dad's house, but it also shows how money is distributed in this country. Three percent of the population have over £50,000 in the bank. A far as I can tell, that's just current and savings accounts, and presumably they have much more money invested in higher interest investments than you get through a bank.
So: 3% of all bank deposits account for 40% of all savings.