Road to the Saving Gateway is paved with opportunity

In a year of tough decisions about spending priorities, taxes and new Government initiatives, the Chancellor has a unique opportunity to help millions of people in Britain understand the merit of savings.

In the two trials to date, the Saving Gateway—a scheme of Government matching for savings— has proven an important tool to stimulate saving among the target group, for whom existing tax incentives may not appeal. The experience and lessons of these trials have conclusively demonstrated that this type of initiative encourages saving and gives greater general awareness of the value of savings.

TISA believes that it is now the right time to announce a UK-wide roll-out of this initiative, which would extend the benefits of saving to ever more people across the UK. TISA has supported HM Treasury and HMRC in their preliminary work on Saving Gateway and is delighted to take a leading role in advocating the creation of this new incentivised savings scheme. When developed in co-ordination with the financial services industry and properly integrated with other savings schemes, TISA believes that the Saving Gateway will make real progress in encouraging and expanding savings habit all across the United Kingdom.

TISA Director General Tony Vine-Lott said, ‘Building on the mass market success of ISAs and Child Trust Funds held by over 20 million people, we believe that the Saving Gateway is the logical next step. By targeting those who aren’t saving and providing new, simple incentives, we believe that we can realise nearly 2 million new savers.’