This is a guest post from Warren Shute CFP, a Chartered Wealth Manager and CISI Financial Planner of the Year. You can find him over at WarrenShute.com.
Have you heard of the brilliant new savings scheme being offered by your government, to help you save? You really should consider this if you qualify. It’s called the Help to Save Scheme.
The Help to Save scheme is a new government saving scheme to support working people on low incomes to build their savings.
Basically, it enables regular savers to deposit up to £50 a month over 4 years (so a maximum of £2,400) and receive up to £1,200 in tax-free bonuses.
At the end of 2 years, savers will get a 50% bonus based on the highest balance achieved.
Customers can carry on saving for another 2 years and get another 50% bonus on their additional savings.
The Help to Save scheme will be open to UK residents who are:
- entitled to Working Tax Credit and receiving Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit payments
- claiming Universal Credit and have a household or individual income of at least £542.88 for their last monthly assessment period
Those living overseas who meet either of these eligibility conditions can apply for an account if they are:
- a Crown servant – or their spouse or civil partner
- a member of the British armed forces – or their spouse or civil partner
The Help to Save scheme started with a trial in January 2018, rolling out in stages and will be available to all those eligible from October 2018.
if you have used it during the trial, let us know what you think?
It will be interesting to see how many choose to take advantage of this scheme going forward.
A challenge for savers is finding a good home for your money and a good return. Allowing people to save up to £50 a month and a 50% bonus, this is great.
Get your free 1% at a time printable
This simple trick helped us to clear £15,000 worth of credit card debt. Simply take your savings goal and divide it by 100 to get your 1% at a time. Once you have saved or earned 1%, cross it off. Download this free printable to keep you on track.
