Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the HM Revenue and Customs press release entitled “More than £300 million paid out through Help to Save with thousands more savers set to benefit”, published on 21 September 2026, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the scheme in helping participating households build financial resilience.

Help to Save supports people on low incomes to build their financial resilience by providing a 50% government bonus on savings.

HMRC’s 2025 evaluation of Help to Save found that awareness and affordability were key barriers to take-up, with 58% of eligible non-users surveyed saying they had not heard of the scheme and 20% saying they could not afford to save. The evaluation also found evidence of positive impacts on saving behaviour and financial resilience, including that 62% of users were not saving before opening their account and 66% reporting that Help to Save had improved their financial circumstances.

In 2028, eligibility will be expanded to all Universal Credit claimants with children or caring responsibilities. The Government has not published an estimate of expected take-up among the additional households that will become eligible from 2028. The approach to evaluating the expanded scheme, including the metrics used, will be determined in due course.