LISA0069

Written evidence submitted by Anonymous

I am a postdoc researcher working in cancer research in London.  After 8 years of studying  (gaining a BSc, MSc and PhD) and 3 years at work I am not a big earner, despite my qualifications.

I purchased a house 2 years ago with my partner . Our combined salary then was 80k. With a  mortgage costing £1600 a month, help from my  parents and a small inheritance from my godmother, we purchased a house near London for just over 500K. I had a Lifetime ISA with £12K saved in it which I had to withdraw and incur a 25% withdrawal charge to buy the house .

With regard to the Lifetime ISA, there are two problems:

With house prices in the  London area, the £450K limit is too low.

The charges when you make a so called “unauthorised withdrawal” are unfair.

People, like myself, who have had to make unauthorised withdrawals and have lost their own money should be refunded.

In my case because the house we bought was over £450k,  I lost £750 of my £12k investment plus 25% of the interest my money had earned . This does not happen with the Help to Buy ISA  or with  withdrawals from savings accounts.

January 2025