Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

This is a probing amendment designed to flush out from the Government how they will attempt to ensure that the take-up of the saving gateway accounts is as high as possible. The amendment proposes that a further notice of eligibility should be issued if, after a set period, a person to whom one was initially sent has not opened the saving gateway account. I have tabled the amendment because I believe that simply sending a single notice of eligibility, particularly one with a set deadline comprising an eligibility period of three months, will result in a low take-up. At Second Reading I gave the example of the child trust funds where take-up is little over 50 per cent in the poorer constituencies, even though in effect the parent is sent a cheque from the Government and told to, "Put this cheque into whichever child trust fund account you wish". In this case there is far less incentive to open an account because you have nothing in your hand of any value. You trigger a benefit only when you start putting your own money into an account. I believe that if the only communication that eligible people receive is a single, no doubt very formal, letter from HMRC, a lot of them will barely read it, far less act on it. Do the Government have any plans to do anything beyond sending out a single notification of eligibility as a matter of course? Our earlier discussion raises a second point, particularly in respect of people who will be eligible to open a saving gateway account over a long period and who, for one reason or another, might not be in a position to do so as soon as they get a notice of eligibility. I have in mind particularly recipients of carer’s allowance, who might be in receipt of such an allowance for a number of years. When they receive their notice of eligibility, they may be facing a personal crisis within the family or a financial difficulty, which means that they cannot immediately open an account. As I understand it, three months down the line, even though they will still be eligible in theory to open an account, their notice of eligibility will have expired. Therefore, three months and one day after receiving the notice, they will not be able to open an account. Have the Government any plans to deal with this ancillary or secondary problem of people who are eligible over a long period and who may for a variety of good reasons want to open an account, but not be able to do so within the relatively short period of initially receiving a notice of eligibility? Could that period of eligibility be reopened after a set period—for example, a year—if people are still eligible to open an account? I beg to move.