Help to Save Calculator

Help to Save is a government scheme aimed at working people on a low income. To qualify you need to be receiving Universal Credit with take-home pay of £1 or more in your last monthly assessment period, a rule that replaced the old test of 16 hours at the National Living Wage on 6 April 2025. The older route through Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit closed when tax credits were migrated to Universal Credit in April 2025. You cannot open an account if you have reached state pension age, are in prison, or are subject to certain immigration restrictions. The scheme has been extended on its current terms until April 2027.

Deposits are flexible within narrow limits. You can pay in anything from £1 to £50 a month for four years, and there is no requirement to pay in every single month. What the government rewards is not the total you deposit but the highest balance you reach. The first bonus, paid at the end of year 2, is 50% of the highest balance during months 1 to 24. Paying the full £50 every month puts that high point at £1,200, so the bonus is £600.

The second bonus works differently and catches people out. Paid at the end of year 4, it is 50% of the difference between the highest balance during months 25 to 48 and the highest balance the first bonus was based on. Keep paying £50 a month and the year 4 high point is £2,400, so the second bonus is 50% of £2,400 less £1,200, which is another £600. Where the balance never rises above the level it reached at the first bonus, the second bonus comes to nothing.

At the maximum, £2,400 of deposits attracts £1,200 in bonuses, £600 at year 2 and £600 at year 4, leaving the account worth up to £3,600. Neither the bonuses nor any interest is taxable. A 50% return on money saved is not something a savings account will match, which is the whole point of the scheme.

Withdrawals are allowed at any time and do not cost you your eligibility, but they do damage the bonus. Because both payments are measured against the highest balance reached, taking money out before a bonus is calculated lowers the figure it is worked out on. Once the year 2 bonus of up to £600 has landed, withdrawing does not claw it back, though anything taken out still feeds into the second calculation through the highest balance you go on to reach.

The account closes at the end of the four years, so it is worth deciding early where the money goes next. A regular savings account, a Cash ISA, or a Lifetime ISA if you are under 40, are the usual destinations. Help to Save looked most striking when interest rates were on the floor, and with Cash ISA rates around 4% in 2026 it still wins comfortably, since a 50% bonus works out at roughly 30% annualised on the average balance over the four years.