The Skipton just robbed my daughter of 3K for a simple mistake

RickyM64

Hi
My daughter originally started saving for a deposit when Help to buy ISA's first started. Towards the end of 2017 she transfered the maximum amount from her Halifax help to buy ISA into a Skipton LISA at this point not believing she would buy soon. For various reasons her plans accelerated and with some extra cash from dad she found a house to buy in July and is in the process of exchanging and completing. At this point her Skipton LISA said she had 10.5K and this was notified to her solicitor to arrange as part of her deposit.

Today somebody from the Skipton rang her to inform her that because her LISA had not been open for a year then the only way she could use this cash was to withdraw it costing her the full bonus and £500 of the money she had saved i.e. returning approx. 7.5K and costing her close to 3K GBP


I am outraged by this, it is hard enought to save for a house without being robbed by the Skipton because of a simple change of circumstances. Finding this out 2 days before exchange is an impossible situation and I am amazed that this simple mistake can cost her her entire goverment bonus on many years of savings. Whom ever is responsible for this should be ashamed of themselves.

Regards

k3lvc

RickyM64 wrote: »

Whom ever is responsible for this should be ashamed of themselves.

Surely your daughter for not reading/understanding the T&C's she signed up for :eek:

Aylesbury_Duck

What terms and conditions did your daughter agree to when she made the transfer? I very much doubt Skipton have "robbed" her of £3k. It's more likely that she didn't heed the terms of the product and has fallen foul of them. That would be her fault I'm afraid and she should have taken the trouble to properly understand it before getting so close to buying a property.

Brookside88

It's been widely publicised that you have to have the account for a year before you can use it for a purchase. Your daughters ignorance cost her £3k not Skipton

Alexland

Unfortunately these are the LISA product rules and Skipton are required to implement them and return the money back to the government. It would have been in the key terms when she signed up.

However - I believe she has 12 months for her solicitors to use the HTB ISA closure statement from Halifax to claim the 25% bonus on the transfered value towards the property purchase. If she has not kept the closure statement she could ask Halifax for a replacement copy. The property purchase would need to qualify under the HTB ISA bonus rules.

An option to avoid the withdrawal penalty would be for her to redesignate the LISA for retirement purposes (transfering to a S&S provider such as AJ Bell and investing until age 60) and her to fund the property deposit from elsewhere if possible?

Not sure how HMRC would feel about essentially her getting the bonus twice on the same money but unless eskbanker, etc corrects me it looks possible.

Alex.

RickyM64

Thanks Alexland for the advice. For everyone else my point stands whom ever in the government designed these rules needs to be ashamed of themselves and the rest of you even more for having no sympathy and nothing useful to offer other than smugness

dunstonh

whom ever in the government designed these rules needs to be ashamed of themselves

The rule is sensible as its purpose was to encourage savers over multiple years.

and the rest of you even more for having no sympathy and nothing useful to offer other than smugness

And you should be ashamed for your silly thread title. It usually is sensible to get some facts first before making silly allegations of theft.

Responses are often based on the tone the starting post is made in. So, you only have yourself to blame with your daft Daily Mail style posting.

mije1983

RickyM64 wrote: »

my point stands whom ever in the government designed these rules needs to be ashamed of themselves

I agree, why should my taxes be used to give your daughter free money



Being serious though, it might be a wake up call for your daughter. If she is purchasing a property she needs to make sure she can read contracts and Ts&Cs as failing to do that on a property purchase could result in a far greater loss than £500. And that's all she has 'lost'. The rest of the money didn't come from her anyway.

gycraig_2

Lipton havent !!!8220;stolen!!!8221; anything your daughter hasnt met the terms and conditions attached to the offer so the government arent willing to pay it.

Aylesbury_Duck

RickyM64 wrote: »

For everyone else my point stands whom ever in the government designed these rules needs to be ashamed of themselves and the rest of you even more for having no sympathy and nothing useful to offer other than smugness

Why? Because the government designed a scheme to help people but your daughter entered into it without understanding it? Why should the government be ashamed of anything, except perhaps the education she received?

As dunstonh has pointed out, you might have received some sympathy had you not got all emotional and accused Skipton of theft. As it is, anyone reading your thread just sees an angry father lashing out in every direction but the correct one because his daughter has made an expensive mistake.

What did you actually want to hear? Your opening post was just a rant. You didn't ask a particular question or for general advice. You offered nothing useful so what did you expect in return?

RickyM64

dunstonh: My daughter did save over multiple years but made a mistake which cost her all of her bonus.

Interesting to see you are an IFA. Good advertising.