Survey suggests more people maxed their ISA allowance last year
A survey by Nationwide Savings based on 2000 ISA savers has suggested that more people used all of their £15,240 ISA allowance last year than did in the previous year when it was £15,000.
Over one in five (21%) of the ISA savers surveyed by Nationwide Savings answered that they up their entire ISA Allowance in the 2015/16 tax year, up from 18% savers who managed to for the 2014/15 tax year.
Men were found to be more likely than women to have used all of their allowance, with around one in four of the men surveyed stating that they used up their whole allowance last year.
The survey also found that over 60% of ISA savers were unaware of the changes to ISA rules, which mean that providers can offer more flexible products that permit savers to withdraw money from the ISA and replace it, within the same tax year, without this affecting their annual ISA Allowance. When asked 31% of savers said that these rules would make them more inclined to use an ISA.
23% of savers said that after having previously withdrawn money from their ISAs they did not have enough of their overall ISA allowance remaining to redeposit the same amount of cash later on in the tax-year.
The annual ISA Allowance will increase from April 2017 to a maximum of £20,000.