The Help to Save bonus is paid on your highest balance, not your closing one — withdrawals never claw back a peak. The rule modelled exactly.
Help to Save pays a 50% government bonus, and the detail most explanations miss is what it is 50% of: the highest balance you reach, not the balance you finish with. Saving £25 a month builds a £600 peak over the first two years and banks a £300 first bonus; carrying on doubles the peak and earns a further £300. Withdraw money after a peak and the bonus already banked does not shrink — GOV.UK's own worked example says so, and this calculator's engine holds that example as a permanent test.
What you can save each month in each half of the scheme. Deposits cap at the scheme's monthly limit.
The bonuses are paid on the highest balance reached, not the closing balance — so a withdrawal after a peak reduces nothing already banked. The first bonus is half the highest balance in years one and two; the final bonus is half the growth of the peak beyond that. Stopping deposits keeps every pound of bonus already earned.
The figures assume no withdrawals, which makes each peak simply what you have paid in. Eligibility: you can open one if you receive Universal Credit and you — with your partner, on a joint claim — had take-home pay of £1 or more in your last monthly assessment period. How to apply is on GOV.UK.
A planning estimate, not financial advice.
| Tax/source year | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Region | UK-wide: savings interest is taxed on the UK bands and thresholds in every UK nation, including for Scottish taxpayers |
| Account rates | Never assumed. Any interest rate in a savings calculation is an input you set, stated beside the result. |
| Your other income | Wages and pension income decide how much Personal Allowance and starting rate are left for interest, and which Personal Savings Allowance band applies. |
|---|---|
| The interest itself | Interest counts towards the income that sets your band, so a large interest year can shrink the allowance that was meant to cover it. |
| The account's wrapper | The same balance at the same rate is taxed outside an ISA and untouched inside one; the wrapper, not the rate, decides whether the allowances are needed. |
| What is not decided here | PayBreakdown does not decide payroll correctness, lender approval, benefit entitlement or employer compliance, and does not give regulated financial, mortgage, debt, tax, payroll or legal advice. |
|---|
The first bonus, paid after two years, is half the highest balance you reached in years one and two. The final bonus, paid after four, is half the GROWTH of your peak — how far the highest balance in years three and four climbed above the first peak. Two consequences follow. A withdrawal after a peak costs you nothing already earned, because the peak is what banks. And a final bonus needs the peak to keep climbing: withdrawing and re-saving the same money earns nothing new until the balance passes its old high-water mark.
Deposits cap at £50 a month, so the largest first peak is £1,200 and the scheme's maximum total bonus is £1,200 over the four years.
The account is for people on Universal Credit: you can open one if you receive it and you — with your partner, on a joint claim — had take-home pay of £1 or more in your last monthly assessment period. How to apply is on GOV.UK; this page keeps to the arithmetic. The calculator assumes no withdrawals, which makes each peak simply what you have paid in; your own peaks are what matter if you do withdraw.
Change any figure above and the result moves with it. A payslip can differ from any calculator because payroll works pay period by pay period, so a tax-code change, a bonus, arrears or a refund can land in one month and not the next. See how each deduction is worked out.
Not the bonus already earned by a peak. The bonuses are calculated on the highest balance reached, so withdrawing after a high point leaves the banked amount untouched. What a withdrawal does cost is future bonus: the balance has to climb past its old peak before the final bonus grows again.
No — the bonuses are tax-free, which is the first thing GOV.UK's guide says about them. They are paid at the end of the second and fourth years, into your bank account rather than the Help to Save account, so they never touch the highest-balance arithmetic this page models.
Last updated 2026-08-28. Checked by Sean Elsmore. Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-08-07. Estimates are for planning and should be checked against official records where the decision matters.