'I got a free £1,200 cash bonus by following this Martin Lewis tip - and millions can do it'

One woman has shared how she managed to get a free cash bonus by following a saving tip. The recent Money Saving Expert (MSE) shared the story of Clare, who followed Martin's advice by opening a Help to Save account.

This is a government scheme for low-income benefit claimants that pays a 50% bonus on the amount saved up to £1,200. So for every £1 put in the account, the Government will boost it by 50p.

The scheme was originally launched by the formerin September 2018 as a way to encourage low-income households to save. You can save between £1 and £50 into the account each month and you can have the account for up to four years.

It was due to end for good in April this year, however, Labour extended it for another two years and it will now run until April 2027.

Clare told the MSE team that she claimed and had opened one after hearing Martin talk about it. After four years of saving, Clare recently cashed out her Help to Save account.

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If you pay into the account every month, at the two year mark the Government pays a bonus of 50% on your highest balance during that period. So if you put in £50 every month, you would have saved £1,200 of your own cash - plus you would get a £600 bonus on top.

The Government also pays another bonus at the four-year mark too - so you could get a boost of £1,200 overall. Clare told the MSE team: “I’ve saved for the last four years... I’m about to cash out my last £2,400 plus my second £600 bonus, so £3,600 in total.

"It was tight some months, but I always pulled the cash together to get the max back! Thanks for the tip all those years ago!”

The rules around the savings account have recently changed. Previously, you could only open a Help to Save account if you got Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit, or you were claiming and earned a minimum of £793.17 from paid work in your last assessment period.

However, this has now changed, and anyone on Universal Credit who’s working and earning at least £1 will qualify for Help to Save. Overall, 7.5million people claim Universal Credit meaning millions of people could be eligible to open one.

According to the latest figures from HMRC, more than 500,000 Help to Save accounts have been opened since the scheme launched in 2018, with a total of £492million paid in.

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