Draft secondary legislation: Help to Save accounts
The LITRG urge caution in the selling of Help to Save as a scheme only targeted at people on the lowest incomes as many people higher up the income scale who have proportionately higher outgoings also fall within Help to Save eligibility based upon the draft regulations. We also query whether it is the policy’s intention to exclude some younger people who are working 16 hours a week from the scheme, which appears to us to be counterintuitive in trying to help younger claimants develop savings habits that might benefit them later on in life.
We also look at the interaction between Help to Save, tax credits and universal credit, specifically discussing the scheme criteria and how other factors (such as the universal credit minimum income floor and surplus earnings rules) might affect eligibility.
Our submissions can be found here:
Kelly Sizer