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For this week’s Savings Guide, Savings Champion co-founder Anna Bowes looks at the Help to Save scheme. She writes…

The Help to Save scheme was launched in September 2018 and has been extended until April 2025 to help people on some benefits save.

The scheme offers a fantastic 50% bonus on the amount saved and is available to those entitled to working tax credit or universal credit. 

Savers can deposit up to £50 a calendar month over a four-year period, with bonuses paid after two and four years. After four years the account will be closed and no further Help to Save accounts can be opened.

So far more than 450,000 people have signed up, with the total value of deposits in the scheme now at over £372m.*

How does it work? 

The maximum bonus that can be achieved in the first two years is £600, based on someone depositing £50 a month for 24 months, so £1,200. That would give them a total of £1,800.

You can access your money at any time and the bonus is based on the highest balance in the account within each bonus period.

So, if you managed to save £1,000 but withdrew £200 of it just before the two years were up, despite having a balance of £800 you’d still get a £500 bonus, as that’s 50% of your highest balance, which was £1,000.

Another £600 is available after year four but only on new deposits. 

So your highest balance from the first two years will be deducted from your highest balance from the second two years – and you’ll get 50% of that.

The generous bonus is a great incentive but of course only to those who can afford to save to get it. For those that are on the lowest incomes, they may struggle with the day to day cost of living, let alone putting money aside in a savings account, but if they can afford to utilise the account, the bonus is a great incentive. 

*Source gov.uk – latest figures and correct in March 2023