HM Revenue & Customs is promoting a new(?) savings scheme heavily – but how does ‘Help to Save’ help the poorest people to save?

The offer seems very good – it’s a bank account into which you can pay between £1 and £50 per month, with 50p given back to you for every pound you deposit.

The account will stay open for four years and bonuses are paid after the second and fourth years of the account being opened. For someone who deposits the maximum £50 each month, it means you will have saved £2,400 by the time the four years is up – and you would have made £1,200 in bonuses from the Government.

But if you have less money to save, you can put away less and still get a bonus. For example, if you save £25 a month over two years, your bonus would be £600 back.

But here’s the sticking-point: it isn’t open to everyone. You are eligible if you are on Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit (and are eligible for Working Tax Credit), and Universal Credit – but only if you (with your partner, if it is a joint claim) had take-home pay of £793.17 or more in your last monthly assessment period.

I don’t get it.

That amount of take-home pay would negate a Universal Credit claim. There’s a taper on earnings of 55p per pound, meaning earnings after the taper was applied would still be above the £368-and-change standard UC payment. I don’t see how people would qualify for this.

And even if they did, these are comparatively rich people. What do poorer UC claimants get – apart from the brush-off?

I have asked HMRC for an explanation but I doubt I’ll get one.

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