Help to Save 21 January 2019 at 9:49AM in Savings & investments 109 replies 12.4K views

PWilliams1971

So I must live under a rock and hadn’t heard of this before! I’ve opened an account now. Trying to decide how to best fund it on a very tight budget. I currently pay £50 a month into a regular saver account which is my ‘emergency fund’. Do I switch that to Help to Buy instead? The problem is I do need to withdraw from this sometimes. I pay into other savings but this is like a ‘cash envelope’ system where I will need that money, e.g. Christmas or annual subscriptions.

olgadapolga

PWilliams1971 said:

So I must live under a rock and hadn’t heard of this before! I’ve opened an account now. Trying to decide how to best fund it on a very tight budget. I currently pay £50 a month into a regular saver account which is my ‘emergency fund’. Do I switch that to Help to Buy instead? The problem is I do need to withdraw from this sometimes. I pay into other savings but this is like a ‘cash envelope’ system where I will need that money, e.g. Christmas or annual subscriptions.

You can withdraw the money but it will reduce your bonus.

Intastella

Hello,
I've recently been awarded the LCWRA element on UC. I opened a help-to-save acct before I lost my job and I'm coming up to my first payout date. Will it affect my benefit payment for that month?

NedS

Intastella said:

Hello,
I've recently been awarded the LCWRA element on UC. I opened a help-to-save acct before I lost my job and I'm coming up to my first payout date. Will it affect my benefit payment for that month?

The bonus payment is not treated as income, but it does count towards your capital, so it would only affect your UC if it were to take your combined capital over £6,000 (or £16,000)

Intastella

NedS said:

Intastella said:

Hello,
I've recently been awarded the LCWRA element on UC. I opened a help-to-save acct before I lost my job and I'm coming up to my first payout date. Will it affect my benefit payment for that month?

The bonus payment is not treated as income, but it does count towards your capital, so it would only affect your UC if it were to take your combined capital over £6,000 (or £16,000)

Well I'm a long way off that so hopefully I'll be ok!

Thank you 😊

jsrose

So I’m coming up to the end of year 4 and awaiting my bonus.  I’ve also managed to save quite a lot in the account having made no withdrawals- so what happens now?  Can i continue with the scheme for another 2 years - years 5 and 6?  Or has it ended?

NedS

jsrose said:

So I’m coming up to the end of year 4 and awaiting my bonus.  I’ve also managed to save quite a lot in the account having made no withdrawals- so what happens now?  Can i continue with the scheme for another 2 years - years 5 and 6?  Or has it ended?

Unfortunately there is no option to continue any further. Your balance and bonus will be paid out to your linked bank account and your Help 2 Save account will be closed

Sellurgranny

Hi, I've received the email from HMRC about my Help to Save account being about to end so checked the balance as I've done regularly throughout.  When I last checked my Bonus was standing at £600 for the 3rd/4th year but looking today its showing as zero and says "To get a final bonus, you had to pay in enough money so your highest balance between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2022 was more than £1650.

In the time left you won’t be able to grow your savings so they are more than £1650. This was your highest balance between 1 September 2018 and 31 August 2020.This is because you only have 0 months left and can only pay in £0 per month."

I am hoping this is a glitch because the bonus payment is in transit to me (I believe its due any day now) - as my highest balance between the two dates mentioned was £450 whereas its £1650 now.

Having a few sweats about this - waiting for the helpline to open at 10am!  Anyone else noticed this happen?

Sellurgranny

Ok apparently this is a glitch on the system .... bonus will be paid on 4th working day of the month which is Tues 6th Sept and should be received in to bank account between 6-13th Sept. Phew £600 bonus is alot to lose.

Should add that the call centre telephone line seems a bit weird, it hung up on me twice.