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UK Lifetime ISA (LISA) Statistics 2026
Key UK Lifetime ISA Statistics 2026
- ~2 million UK adults held a Lifetime ISA in 2024 — approximately 4% of all UK adults, up from 1.4% in 2020.
- 976,000 LISA accounts were subscribed to in 2023/24, receiving new contributions — a 27% increase on the prior year.
- £2.35 billion was saved into Lifetime ISAs in 2023/24 — the highest annual total since the product launched in April 2017.
- £600 million per year current Exchequer cost of LISA bonuses — forecast to reach £3 billion over five years to 2029/30.
- 228,000 first-time buyers have used a LISA to purchase a home since the product launched in April 2017.
- 87,250 first-time buyer withdrawals were made in 2024/25 — a 54% year-on-year surge driven by stamp duty deadline effects.
- 129,200 unauthorised (penalty) withdrawals were made in 2024/25 — outnumbering first-time buyer withdrawals by 1.5 to 1.
- £315 million in cumulative penalty charges collected from LISA savers since launch — an average of approximately £790 per person.
- LISA being replaced — the government will consult in 2026 on a new, simpler first-time buyer ISA announced in the Autumn Budget 2025.
- £450,000 cap has been frozen since 2017, despite average UK house prices rising 32.9% over the same period.
a Lifetime ISA
2023/24
Helped Since 2017
Charges Collected
How Many People Have a Lifetime ISA in the UK?
Approximately 2 million UK adults — 4% of the adult population — held a Lifetime ISA in 2024, according to the FCA Financial Lives Survey 2024 (fieldwork February–June 2024, 17,950 respondents, published May 2025). LISA ownership has nearly tripled since 2020, when just 1.4% of adults held one.
On the HMRC subscription measure — counting accounts that received at least one contribution in the tax year — 976,000 LISA accounts were subscribed to in 2023/24, a 27% increase on the 767,000 active in 2022/23. The total number of open LISA accounts (including dormant accounts) reached approximately 1.6 million by the end of 2024/25, according to HMRC data published alongside the September 2025 Annual Savings Statistics release.
Despite growth, the LISA remains a niche product. Only around 6% of all adults aged 18 to 46 — the eligible age group — have ever opened one, according to HMRC's letter to the Treasury Committee dated 9 April 2025. For context, 32% of UK adults hold a Cash ISA and 17% hold a Stocks & Shares ISA. Savers comparing LISA providers against the wider market can see how the major UK investment platforms stack up on fees and features.
Source: FCA Financial Lives Survey 2024: Cash Savings — Selected Findings, published May 2025; HMRC Annual Savings Statistics, September 2025.
LISA Subscriptions Reached a Record £2.35 Billion in 2023/24
Annual subscriptions into Lifetime ISAs have grown strongly since the product launched in April 2017. In 2023/24, £2.35 billion was saved into LISAs — a 25.3% increase on the £1.87 billion subscribed in 2022/23, and the highest annual total since launch. The HMRC figures for 2017/18 and 2018/19 are considered unreliable due to data quality issues in the scheme's first years.
The average LISA subscription of approximately £2,400 per account represents just 60% of the £4,000 annual maximum. HMRC data confirms only around 31% of holders max out their annual contribution. However, the pattern is bimodal: approximately half of all government bonuses paid were the maximum £1,000, suggesting a committed core alongside many casual contributors.
Cumulatively, more than £13 billion has been saved into LISAs since the scheme's April 2017 launch. The LISA represents approximately 2.3% of all ISA subscriptions by value — a significant niche product but dwarfed by Cash ISA (67%) and Stocks & Shares ISA (30%) inflows.
| Tax Year | Accounts Subscribed | Amount Subscribed | YoY Change | Avg per Account |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 | ~700,000 | ~£1.40bn | — | ~£2,000 |
| 2021/22 | ~750,000 | ~£1.67bn | +19% | ~£2,227 |
| 2022/23 | ~767,000 | £1.87bn | +12% | ~£2,443 |
| 2023/24 | ~976,000 | £2.35bn | +25.3% | ~£2,409 |
| 2024/25 | ~1,100,000 | ~£2.60bn | ~+11% | ~£2,364 |
Source: HMRC Annual Savings Statistics, September 2025 and September 2024; AJ Bell analysis of HMRC data.
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The Government Pays £600 Million a Year in LISA Bonuses
Every pound saved into a LISA attracts a 25% government bonus — equivalent to £1,000 per year for a maximum £4,000 contribution. This bonus is paid monthly by HMRC directly into the LISA account. The total annual Exchequer cost of LISA bonuses has grown alongside account numbers, reaching approximately £600 million in 2023/24 (net of withdrawal penalty receipts).
The Office for Budget Responsibility's March 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook forecast the cumulative LISA bonus cost will reach approximately £3 billion over the five years to 2029/30. The Treasury Committee's June 2025 report questioned value for money: HMRC's own commissioned research found 87% of LISA holders who used the account to purchase a home said they could have done so without it.
"HMRC's own research is the most damning line in the Treasury Committee report: 87% of LISA-assisted first-time buyers said they'd have completed the purchase without it. That turns the LISA's bonus from a savings incentive into a post-hoc subsidy for savers who had already committed to homeownership. The new first-time buyer ISA that replaces it needs to solve that additionality problem — or the Exchequer will keep paying £600m a year to reward behaviour that was always going to happen."
228,000 First-Time Buyers Have Used a LISA to Purchase a Home
Since the Lifetime ISA launched in April 2017, a cumulative 228,000 individuals — representing approximately 182,500 property purchases, as some couples use two LISAs — have made first-time buyer withdrawals, according to the Government's formal response to the Treasury Committee published 4 September 2025.
First-time buyer withdrawal activity accelerated sharply in 2024/25 as buyers rushed to complete purchases ahead of changes to stamp duty thresholds in April 2025. The 87,250 individuals making qualifying withdrawals in 2024/25 represented a 54% year-on-year surge from the 56,900 recorded in 2023/24.
The average first-time buyer LISA withdrawal of £15,782 in 2024/25 represents a meaningful contribution toward a deposit, though its adequacy varies enormously by region. In London, where the average first-time buyer property price exceeded £500,000 in 2024, a LISA withdrawal contributes approximately 3% of the purchase price — and is rendered inaccessible by the £450,000 property price cap in any case. In the North East, where average first-time buyer prices were around £140,000, the same withdrawal represents over 11%.
| Tax Year | FTB Withdrawals (individuals) | Avg Withdrawal | Estimated Total Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | ~55,750 | ~£13,873 | ~£773m |
| 2023/24 | 56,900 | £14,927 | ~£849m |
| 2024/25 | 87,250 | £15,782 | ~£1.38bn |
Source: HMRC Annual Savings Statistics, September 2025 and September 2024; Government Response to Treasury Committee, HC 1311, September 2025.
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£315 Million in LISA Penalties Have Been Collected — and Rising
The Lifetime ISA imposes a 25% withdrawal charge on any withdrawal that is not for a qualifying purpose (first home purchase, retirement from age 60, or terminal illness). Because the charge applies to the full withdrawal amount including the government bonus, savers lose all of their bonus plus 6.25% of their own money. The charge was temporarily reduced to 20% from March 2020 to April 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unauthorised withdrawals have risen steadily since the LISA launched and — critically — now substantially outnumber qualifying first-time buyer withdrawals. The cumulative total of penalty charges collected since the LISA launched is approximately £315 million through April 2025. The proportion of all LISA withdrawals that were unauthorised rose from 45% in 2018/19 to 64% in 2023/24.
| Tax Year | Penalty Withdrawals | Total Charges | Avg Charge per Person |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 | ~41,700 | ~£43m | ~£1,032 |
| 2022/23 | ~74,000 | ~£62m | — |
| 2023/24 | 99,650 | £75.3m | ~£755 |
| 2024/25 | 129,200 | £102m | ~£790 |
Source: HMRC Annual Savings Statistics, September 2025 and 2024; Plum FOI request; Treasury Committee HC 607, June 2025.
Free to use with a dofollow link back to The Investors Centre.
Who Holds a Lifetime ISA? Demographics by Age, Gender and Income
The LISA is structurally targeted at younger adults — it can only be opened by those aged 18 to 39. FCA Financial Lives 2024 data confirms this age concentration but also reveals ownership is far from universal even within the eligible cohort. Among 18 to 24-year-olds — those with the most to gain from the compounding bonus — LISA ownership of 11% is highest proportionally. The gender split is narrow: men (4%) are only marginally more likely than women (3%) to hold a LISA.
Provider data adds colour. Moneybox is the largest LISA provider with over 1.5 million active LISA savers. Skipton Building Society — the first cash LISA provider in 2017 — has over 160,000 accounts holding approximately £1.2 billion. Stocks-and-shares LISA investors are concentrated at Hargreaves Lansdown's platform and AJ Bell. Only around 33 providers (1 in 7 ISA managers) offer the LISA, due to its operational complexity.
| Age Group | LISA Ownership (2024) | Change Since 2022 | Cash ISA Ownership (2024) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18–24 | 11% | +3pp ↑ | 18% |
| 25–34 | 9% | +1pp ↑ | 25% |
| 35–44 | 6% | +1pp ↑ | 26% |
| 45+ | 0% | — | 30–45% |
Source: FCA Financial Lives Survey 2024 (fieldwork Feb–Jun 2024, n=17,950). Published May 2025.
52% of LISA Holders Are Saving for a First Home — 29% for Retirement
The dual-purpose design of the Lifetime ISA — supporting both first-time buyers and retirement saving — is reflected in how holders report their intentions. Among UK adults holding a LISA in 2024, 52% said they were saving primarily to buy a first home, 29% for retirement or later life, and 11% for both goals, according to the FCA Financial Lives Survey 2024.
Provider data shows a stronger first-home skew. Moneybox reports 78% of its customers primarily save for a first home and only 12% primarily for retirement. Among those holding a LISA for retirement, 59% hold a cash LISA (more appropriate for short-term first-home saving) and 27% hold a stocks and shares LISA — suggesting a potential product-purpose mismatch that the Treasury Committee highlighted as a structural design flaw.
The £450,000 Property Cap Has Excluded Buyers From Major Cities Since 2017
The LISA can only be used to purchase a property priced at £450,000 or below. This cap has remained frozen since the LISA launched in April 2017, during which period average UK house prices rose 32.9%.
The practical effect is that the LISA is now unavailable for first-time buyers in large parts of London and the South East. The average London first-time buyer property price exceeded £500,000 in 2024, making the cap a binding constraint for the majority of London buyers. Skipton Building Society's evidence to the Treasury Committee projected that by end-2027, the cap would fall below the average first-time buyer purchase price in 12% of all UK local authorities. The government's formal response (HC 1311, September 2025) maintained the £450,000 cap as "appropriate," declining to raise it.
The LISA Is Being Replaced — a New First-Time Buyer ISA Is Coming
The Treasury Committee's June 2025 report (HC 607) — drawing on 200 written submissions, HMRC-commissioned research, and direct HMRC data — concluded that the Lifetime ISA is "too complex" and its dual-purpose design "increases the risk of poor financial decisions." The committee made five recommendations including raising the penalty charge exemption, removing LISAs from Universal Credit means-testing, and raising the property cap.
The government rejected most recommendations in its September 2025 response but announced in the Autumn Budget (26 November 2025) that it will consult on "a new, simpler ISA product to support first-time buyers." HMRC's Tax-Free Savings Newsletter 20 (January 2026) confirmed the replacement product will be first-home focused only, with no retirement savings component, and the bonus will be paid at the point of purchase rather than monthly. Existing LISAs will be able to continue indefinitely — and for savers weighing an ISA against pension savings for the long term, the changes sharpen the case for keeping retirement goals inside a pension wrapper rather than a LISA.
TIC Analysis: The True Cost of an Early LISA Withdrawal
The HMRC figures describe the aggregate scale of LISA penalty charges, but no published source models what an early withdrawal actually costs an individual saver under different scenarios. TIC has modelled three representative cases to illustrate the real financial impact of the 25% penalty.
| Profile | Years Saved | Own Savings | Gov Bonus | LISA Value | Penalty (25%) | Net Received | Effective Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saved 1 year | 1 yr | £4,000 | £1,000 | ~£5,180 | ~£1,295 | ~£3,885 | £115 (2.9%) |
| Saved 3 years | 3 yrs | £12,000 | £3,000 | ~£16,520 | ~£4,130 | ~£12,390 | £390 (3.2%) |
| Saved 5 years | 5 yrs | £20,000 | £5,000 | ~£28,890 | ~£7,223 | ~£21,667 | ~£1,333 (6.7%) |
TIC calculation, April 2026. Based on HMRC LISA rules and Moneybox Cash LISA rate of 4.5% AER.
"The LISA penalty's design punishes circumstance as much as choice. HMRC's own research finds 22% of penalty-paying savers withdrew because they 'needed the money' — not through poor planning, but through redundancy, illness or relationship breakdown. A 6.25% structural loss on own savings for those savers is a bad-luck tax on the group least able to absorb it, and removing it for genuine hardship is the single most obvious reform the replacement product should adopt."
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people have a Lifetime ISA in the UK?
Approximately 2 million UK adults — around 4% of the adult population — held a Lifetime ISA in 2024, according to the FCA Financial Lives Survey 2024. On the HMRC active subscription measure, 976,000 LISA accounts received contributions in 2023/24. Around 1.6 million total LISA accounts are open.
How much can you put in a Lifetime ISA each year?
The annual Lifetime ISA contribution limit is £4,000. This counts toward the overall £20,000 annual ISA allowance. The government adds a 25% bonus of up to £1,000 per tax year, paid monthly. The £4,000 limit is frozen until at least April 2031.
What is the Lifetime ISA government bonus?
The government adds a 25% bonus on all LISA contributions, up to a maximum of £1,000 per tax year. For a maximum £4,000 contribution, the bonus is £1,000. The bonus is paid monthly by HMRC and sits within the LISA account, earning returns alongside the saver's own contributions.
How many people have used a LISA to buy a home?
Since the LISA launched in April 2017, 228,000 individuals — representing approximately 182,500 property purchases — have made qualifying first-time buyer withdrawals. In 2024/25 alone, 87,250 people made first-time buyer LISA withdrawals, a 54% increase on the prior year.
What is the Lifetime ISA withdrawal penalty?
Withdrawing from a LISA for a non-qualifying purpose (anything other than buying a first home, turning 60, or terminal illness) incurs a 25% charge on the total amount withdrawn — including the government bonus. This means the saver loses their entire government bonus plus 6.25% of their own savings.
How many people have paid the LISA penalty?
In 2024/25, 129,200 people made unauthorised LISA withdrawals and paid the 25% penalty charge, totalling £102 million. Cumulatively from launch through April 2025, approximately £315 million has been collected in LISA penalties from around 415,000 individuals. Penalty withdrawals now outnumber qualifying first-home withdrawals by approximately 1.5 to 1.
What is the Lifetime ISA property price cap?
A LISA can only be used to purchase a property priced at £450,000 or below. This cap has been frozen since the LISA launched in April 2017, during which UK house prices rose approximately 33%. The cap effectively excludes LISA holders from using the product in London, where average first-time buyer prices exceed £500,000.
Is the Lifetime ISA being scrapped?
The LISA is being replaced, not immediately scrapped. The government announced in the Autumn Budget 2025 that it will consult on a new, simpler first-time buyer ISA to replace the LISA. Existing LISA accounts will be able to continue. The replacement product will focus solely on first-home purchase and the bonus will be paid at point of purchase rather than monthly.
What are the most popular LISA providers in the UK?
Moneybox is the largest LISA provider, with over 1.5 million active LISA savers as of 2025. Skipton Building Society has over 160,000 accounts holding approximately £1.2 billion. Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell offer stocks and shares LISAs. Only around 33 providers (1 in 7 ISA managers) offer the LISA, due to operational complexity.
Who is eligible for a Lifetime ISA?
UK residents aged 18 to 39 can open a Lifetime ISA. Once opened, contributions can continue until the account holder's 50th birthday, even if they opened the account at age 39. The maximum contribution is £4,000 per tax year. The product cannot be opened by anyone already aged 40 or over.
Is a Lifetime ISA better than a pension?
For basic-rate taxpayers without employer pension contributions — particularly the self-employed — the LISA can offer comparable value to a pension. However, the £4,000 annual cap is far below typical pension contribution levels, and the 25% withdrawal penalty makes it significantly less flexible. For most employed workers, a workplace pension with employer contributions will offer better overall value.
Can I have a Lifetime ISA and a pension?
Yes. There is no restriction on holding both a LISA and a workplace or personal pension simultaneously. Many financial advisers recommend using the LISA for first-home purchase and a pension for retirement, rather than relying on the LISA for both goals, given the product's low contribution cap and high exit penalty.
What age group is most likely to have a Lifetime ISA?
18 to 24-year-olds have the highest LISA ownership rate at 11% in 2024, despite typically having lower disposable income. This group saw the largest growth in ownership (+3 percentage points) since 2022. LISA ownership falls with age among the eligible 18–39 cohort: 9% among 25–34-year-olds and 6% among 35–44-year-olds.
What happens to my Lifetime ISA if I don't buy a house?
A LISA can be kept open indefinitely and used to fund retirement from age 60, with no penalty. Alternatively, a non-qualifying withdrawal can be made at any time — but this incurs the 25% penalty. From around April 2028, when the LISA is replaced by a new first-time buyer ISA, existing LISA accounts will be able to continue on existing terms.
How much has been saved in Lifetime ISAs in total?
More than £13 billion has been saved into Lifetime ISAs since the product launched in April 2017, according to AJ Bell analysis of HMRC data. In 2023/24 alone, £2.35 billion was subscribed — the highest annual total on record. The median LISA balance among holders is approximately £6,000.