Consumer champion Martin Lewis has told MPs there are “major holes” in Lifetime Isas which need fixing. Giving evidence to the Treasury Committee, the MoneySavingExpert.com founder said: “I think the Lifetime Isa has been a very successful product for first-time buyers, though has some major holes.”.
The Lifetime Isa, or Lisa, was first unveiled in 2016 as a savings vehicle for people saving for their first home, or their retirement. People must be 18 or over but under 40 to open a Lisa. The Government adds a 25% bonus to savings, up to a maximum of £1,000 per year.
However, there have been numerous calls for the design of the account to be overhauled. A £450,000 property purchase cap for first-time buyers using the account has attracted criticism, with house prices having surged in recent years. There is also a charge of 25% for withdrawing the money for any reason other than buying a first home or because the saver has reached the age of 60 or over, unless the saver is terminally ill.
Mr Lewis told the committee: “Many people think that if you add 25% and take off 25% you get back to where you started. You don’t. You end up with 6.25% less than where you started.”. He said: “I think the urgent and the immediate action is to make sure that when someone is buying a house for the first time, the very worst case scenario is there’s a 20% penalty.”.
Mr Lewis also highlighted the static £450,000 house purchase cap, which can put people off saving into a Lisa in the first place. He said: “We have a succession of young people who are saving in the vehicle they have been encouraged to save in by the state, who are then trying to use their savings to buy a first-time property, but due to house price inflation their property has just tripped above the £450,000 level.
“And then not only do they not get the £1,000-a-year bonus they were intended to get, which I understand and it’s legitimate, there’s a threshold, they are fined by the state effectively 6.25% of their own money in order to withdraw that money to get the cash out.
“And the problem with that is not just for the individuals who it affects. “When I do television programmes on the Lifetime Isa, I have to warn people about that. And when I warn them about that, because you have to have the caveat, you should only save in this if you are definitely going to buy a property under £450,000, instantly, we have a huge drop-out in the number of people who get it.”.
He also highlighted the cut-off age for opening a Lisa, describing it as “age discrimination”. Mr Lewis said: “Why should a 41-year-old who’s never had the opportunity to buy a home not be able to open a Lifetime Isa?”. He also said the retirement-savings linked element of the product “is a problem” and that: “No big banks offer this product, because they’re worried about being done for mis-selling.”.
Mr Lewis said: “If you ask me: ‘Who should use a Lifetime Isa for retirement?’. I would say no employee unless they’ve maxed out their auto-enrolment, because that smacks the pants off the Lifetime Isa for retirement savings, no higher or top-rate taxpayer, because the tax benefits on pensions are way better than the Lifetime Isa.”.
He told the MPs: “You can see why, when the huge majority of the population should always be saving first in a pension, that the banks, with all the mis-selling campaigns… that the banks have gone, we just don’t want to touch this, because we’re going to get people telling us they used it for retirement savings and in 20 years they’ll say you should have told me to get a pension.”.
