Government saving scheme offers savings top-ups for people on low incomes
People receiving Universal Credit, Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit may be able to claim a savings bonus with the UK government's Help to Save scheme.
If you take advantage of the scheme, then for every £1 you save, the UK government will give you another 50p. So, if you save £50, you’ll get another £25.
You’ll need to open a Help to Save account to benefit from the scheme – you can’t use a different type of account.
Who can use the Help to Save scheme?
You can open a Help to Save account and start getting free money from the UK government if you:
How does the Help to Save scheme work?
To use the scheme, you need to open a Help to Save bank account (please note, OneFamily doesn’t currently offer this type of account). You can only open a Help to Save account through the UK government website.
Once your account is open, you can keep it open for four years.
You can pay in between £1 and £50 every calendar month that the account is open. You don’t have to pay in every month, the main thing to be aware of is that you can’t put in more than £50 each month no matter how much you paid in during the month before.
Even if can only save £1 a month for now, this will still earn you some free money from the UK government.
You can take money out whenever you like, but the more money that you have in your account, the more money you’ll get from the government, so it’s best to avoid doing so unless you really need to.
When is the Help to Save bonus paid?
Your first bonus payment
After your account has been open for two years, the government will look at much you’ve managed to save. It will check what the highest amount of money you’ve saved is and give you half of this.
Your bonus is based on the highest amount you’ve ever had in your account during the two years you’ve been saving.
Examples:
- If you’ve managed to save the maximum £50 every month and not withdrawn any money, you’ll have £1,200 in your account at the end of the two years which you’ve saved yourself. This is the most money that has ever been in your account. Your government bonus will be half of this: £600.
- If you needed to make some withdrawals, the amount you have in your account at the end of the two years might not be the most you’ve ever had. For example, you might at some point have had £400 in the account before needing to withdraw some money. As this is the highest balance your account has reached (even if you now have less than this), your government bonus will be half of £400, which is £200.
Your second bonus payment
The second bonus is paid four years after you opened the account. Your account will also be closed at this point as you’re only allowed to have it open for four years.
This bonus payment is based on how much more you’ve managed to save above your first highest balance. You’ll get 50% of the difference between the highest balance you had in the first two years and the highest balance you had in the second two years.
Examples:
- If the most money you ever had in your account during the first two years was open was £400, but during the second two years you reached £800, then the difference would be £400. Your government bonus would be half of this: £200.
- If the most you managed to have in your account during the first two years of it being open was £100, but you managed to reach £700 in the second two years, then the difference would be £600. Your government bonus would be half of this: £300.
If, during the second two years, you don’t manage reach a higher balance than you did in the first two years, you won’t get a second bonus because the difference will be £0.
| Person 1 | Person 2 | Person 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highest amount of money in the account during first two years (from opening to end of year 2) |
£200 | £400 | £1,200 |
| First bonus payment (half of highest amount so far) |
£100 | £200 | £600 |
| Highest amount of money in the account during second two years (from end of year 2 to end of year 4) |
£600 | £1,000 | £1,200 |
| Difference between highest amount in first two year and highest amount in second two years | £400 | £600 | £0 |
| Second bonus payment (half of the difference between the highest amount in first two years and highest amount in second two years) |
£200 | £300 | £0 |
| TOTAL BONUS AT END OF SCHEME | £300 | £500 | £600 |
So, how can you get the biggest possible Help to Save bonus?
As you’re not allowed to pay more than £50 a month into your Help to Save account, the highest balance you could possibly reach at the end of the first two years is £1,200, which would give you a £600 bonus.
If you saved the same again in the second two years, you’d get another £600 bonus at the end of the fourth year.
So, the biggest bonus you can get in total is £1,200.
UK government financial support
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