Excluding savings in Lifetime ISA from Universal Credit eligibility assessments could help

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Boris Johnson’s “benefits-to-bricks” speech this week made some interesting headlines.

Among them was the possibility of excluding savings in Lifetime ISA (LISA) from Universal Credit (UC) eligibility assessments.

At the moment, any savings over £6,000 would mean a reduction in the amount of money you get from UC.

But if you withdraw money from LISA before you retire or buy your first house – because you can’t get support through UC until you’ve used that money up – you would actually lose money.

This is because there’s a withdrawal charge of 25% if you take money out of your LISA before retirement to use on anything other than buying your first home.

I’m not so sure the Prime Minister’s other proposals will be quite so beneficial – to those it’s meant to benefit or the economy – but this one will at least help people save for the future.