Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis is urging everyone to check if they're eligible for a £600 payment. The cost of living crisis has hit tens of millions of people in the UK, and many are now struggling to make ends meet or to afford basic necessities like heating and food.
MoneySavingExpert (MSE) founder Martin Lewis has been dishing out advice to people looking to slash bills and increase the amount of money in their bank accounts. Countless people rely on his advice, which he can often be seen giving on shows like ITV's This Morning, Good Morning Britain and the Martin Lewis Money Show.
On the latest installment of his namesake show, Martin Lewis spoke to a woman who had successfully followed his advice and got £600 from the Government for free. Now he's urging others to do the same.
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Martin Lewis showed his viewers the example of a woman who successfully signed up to a Help To Save bank account. The woman, a farmer, said she had been struggling to make ends meet but having opened a Help To Save account, managed to reduce her broadband and mobile phone costs and stuck the £50 a month she saved into the Help To Save account.
She told Martin's viewers: "I've been paying £50 a month for two years and my account showed £1,200. The government then paid me £600 into my current account. It's amazing!"
The catch is that you need to be on Universal Credit and on a low income in order to qualify for the money. But if you are eligible, you should definitely claim it, says Yorkshire Live.
Martin added: "It's very important for financial resilience if you can. It's for people who are on universal credit and low incomes, if you can. Not everyone will qualify but it is worth checking. You can put in up to £50 a month over two years.
"Then, the bonus you get is on the maximum amount you had in. This is really crucial. Imagine you put in £50 a month, and you got up to £600, and then you had an emergency, your window's broken and you had to pay to have it repaired and all your £600 goes and you can't afford to put any money in after that.
"At the end of the two years, you still get the bonus on the highest amount you had in. 50% of £600, you'd still get a £300 bonus even if you had nothing in it. The concept is that it allows people on very low incomes to save, but still use the money if they need to."
He said people can apply via gov.uk and "there is nothing anywhere even as close to as good as those terms" if you're eligible.
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