Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

One of the arguments against the noble Baroness’s amendment, with which I have considerable sympathy, is that a purpose of the saving gateway accounts is to help inculcate the savings habit. The argument is presumably that if you have not acquired the savings habit by the time you reach pensionable age, you are probably not going to. However, that principle does not apply to other government incentives to save, of which the ISA is the most obvious example. With ISAs, which apply throughout an individual’s life, the Government are giving a considerable incentive to save, much greater than via this provision, on the basis that they want promote saving full stop. If you accept the argument behind the ISA—somebody earning enough to get tax relief on savings is eligible for it throughout their life because the Government think that one should be able to open an ISA aged 65 or 75, rather than it be age-limited—it is difficult to see the logic in not applying that principle to the Bill. I therefore have considerable sympathy with the noble Baroness’s amendment.