Cash ISA changes from 6 April 2024

During the Chancellor’s 2023 Autumn Statement, the government announced a number of ISA changes that took effect from 6 April 2024. Here we summarise the key updates for Cash ISAs and the changes we have made to our processes.

Cash ISAs offer the benefit of tax free* interest earned from the cash saved in them. The maximum you can invest remains at £20,000 for Cash ISAs and £9,000 for Junior Cash ISAs from the 2024-25 tax year.

Minimum age increase for Cash ISAs

There has been an increase in the minimum age from 16 years to 18 years for Cash ISAs. This is   a compulsory change for all ISA providers. Junior Cash ISAs however will remain available to those under 18 years of age.

Visit our Cash ISAs page for details of our available ISA products or our Children’s Accounts page for details of our Junior Cash ISA.

There is no change to our non-ISA accounts. Our range of online accounts can still be accessed from 16 years old, and with the exception of our Regular Savings accounts, our branch and postal accounts have no minimum age.  Please be aware that these account types do not offer tax free* interest.

Paying into more than one Cash ISAs in the same tax year

The government has removed the restriction that meant savers could not pay into more than one Cash ISA type in the same tax year (with the exception of Lifetime ISAs and Junior Cash ISAs).

Although savers can pay into more than one type of ISA, the overall subscription limit for Cash ISA savers is £20,000 in the same tax year.

This change was not compulsory for savings providers, and at Mansfield, we will still only allow savers to pay into one Cash ISA in the same tax year. You can however pay into separate Cash ISAs with different Cash ISA providers while retaining your ISA with us though.

Savers are responsible for managing their overall subscription limits with His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), currently set at the maximum of £20,000 per tax year.

Completing a new ISA application where you have not paid in the previous tax year

The government has removed the need for a saver to complete a new application when they have not paid into the account in the previous tax year.

This change was also not a compulsory one and, at Mansfield, we only allow subscriptions to Cash ISA accounts that are available to new savers.

This means that we would not allow continued investments into a Cash ISA in a new tax year from an account that is no longer available to new customers (a closed issue account).

We review our Cash ISA product availability for each new tax year. If your existing ISA continues to be available to new savers in the new tax year, branch and postal account holders will need to complete a new application form to continue to subscribe.

Our branch colleagues make this process as simple as possible by completing the form for you, leaving you to sign to approve the continued subscriptions. This process is not necessary for online ISA accounts however, where you will be automatically renewed if the product continues to be available.

If you wish to continue to make further subscriptions in the new tax year and your account is no longer available to new customers, you will need to open a new Cash ISA product. If the terms of the new product allow, you can transfer funds from your closed issue Cash ISA to the new product.

Partial transfers between ISA managers

The government now allows savers to transfer part of their savings from one Cash ISA to another, rather than make them transfer all of their balance to a new account. Again, this is not a compulsory change for ISA providers.

Mansfield do not allow partial transfers out of current tax year contributions to other ISA Managers. If you want to transfer your current tax year ISA contributions to another ISA provider, then the full tax year contributions must be transferred to the new provider.

 

*Tax free means you won’t pay UK tax on any income or capital gains your ISA makes.