Credit Unions: Help to Save Scheme
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of enabling Credit Unions to offer Help to Save accounts.
Answered by Lucy Rigby
The Help to Save scheme supports financial resilience for working people on low incomes by encouraging consistent, long-term saving and helping them build a financial buffer to plan and prepare for the future. The scheme is currently available to working individuals in receipt of Universal Credit, ensuring it remains targeted at its intended population.
As announced at Autumn Budget 2025, the government will make the Help to Save scheme permanent and, from April 2028, will expand eligibility to include all Universal Credit claimants who receive the child element, the caring element or both.
The government has recently consulted on reforms to the future delivery of Help to Save and has engaged with a range of third-party financial institutions, including credit unions, as part of this process. While a decision on the future delivery model has not yet been made, the government will continue working with credit unions and other interested financial institutions as these proposals are developed further.
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