Lifetime ISA FAQs
See below for some common questions about our Lifetime ISA and about lifetime ISAs in general. If you have a question that isn't answered here, please contact us by secure message from within your online account.
General product information
A lifetime ISA is an individual savings account (ISA), designed for those aged between 18 and 39 to save towards buying their first home or towards retirement.
- You can invest up to £4,000, in this current tax year (subject to contributions into other types of ISAs)
- The government tops up the money you put in a lifetime ISA with a bonus of 25%, up to £1,000 per year, based on the current rules
- There are two types of lifetime ISA - cash or stocks and shares. OneFamily only offers a stocks and shares Lifetime ISA.
You can find out more about lifetime ISAs with our 'What is a lifetime ISA?' guide.
To open a lifetime ISA you must:
- Be aged between 18-39.
- Be a UK resident or be a Crown employee serving overseas and paid out of public revenue (or be married or in a civil partnership with such an employee).
You must not:
- Be a US citizen (including dual nationals)
- Hold a lifetime ISA that you have pay into in the current tax year.
There are two types of lifetime ISAs - stocks and shares and cash. OneFamily only offers a stocks and shares Lifetime ISA.
Find out more about the OneFamily Stocks and Shares Lifetime ISA here.
A cash lifetime ISA is generally aimed at shorter term savings as cash offers security but may not offer the same potential for growth over the long term as stocks and shares would.
As interest rates for cash savings might not exceed the rate of inflation the value can be eroded over time.
Although stocks and shares can offer greater potential for growth over the long term than cash, the value can fall as well as rise and it's possible you could get back less than is paid in.
For our own Stocks and Shares Lifetime ISA we suggest a five-year minimum term of investment. If you are looking to buy your first home within the next five years, a cash lifetime ISA is probably more appropriate.
Read our guide on 'Lifetime ISA: cash vs stocks and shares' to find out more.
Yes, but you can only pay into one lifetime ISA in each tax year (subject to contributions into other types of ISAs).
Find out about lifetime ISA allowances and limits here.
You can contribute to a lifetime ISA until your 50th birthday, as long as you don't go over the overall ISA contribution. The maximum lifetime ISA contribution in the current tax year is £4,000 (subject to contributions into other types of ISAs).
Discover more about lifetime ISA allowances and limits or find out how much you can get back from your savings with our lifetime ISA calculator.
First-time buyer product information
Unfortunately not, but if you're both first time buyers, you can both open lifetime ISAs separately.
You could then use both of your lifetime ISAs to buy your first home.
Yes, you can transfer your help to buy ISA balance into our OneFamily Lifetime ISA. Please remember - any transferred funds will count towards the lifetime ISA contribution limit in the current tax year.
You must have your lifetime ISA open for a minimum of 12 months before using the money to buy your first home. As ours is a stocks and shares ISA, the value can fall as well as rise so you could get back less than is paid in.
If you’re looking to transfer your help to buy ISA to a lifetime ISA, you'll need to read all key documentation and open your lifetime ISA account online.
When you're ready to request the transfer, print the transfer form, complete and send to us using our freepost address: FREEPOST LIFETIME ISA.
If you already have a lifetime ISA with us, you'll also find a link to this document in the 'my documents' section of your online account.
Yes, if you already have a help to buy ISA then you can also open a lifetime ISA. However, you will only be able to use the government bonus from one of them to buy your first home. Please note that help to buys ISAs aren't available anymore, you can only open a lifetime ISA.
Find out more about the differences between help to buy ISAs and lifetime ISAs.
Please note OneFamily only offers a stocks and shares Lifetime ISA.
Learn more about how to use a lifetime ISA as a first-time buyer.
House purchase information
When you’ve had an offer on a property accepted and have appointed your registered conveyancing solicitor, you’re ready to use the funds towards your first house purchase. To do this there are two forms to complete; an Investor Declaration Form and a Conveyancer Declaration Form. Both forms include instructions for completion.
Once we receive the completed forms from your conveyancing solicitor we will give you a quick call to confirm your instructions and receipt of the forms. We can then work with your conveyancing solicitor to get the funds sent across to them as soon as possible.
Absolutely, as your bonus is added to your account monthly, your lifetime ISAs bonuses can be used towards a deposit.
Your first point of contact for your house purchase should be your conveyancing solicitor.
The process of getting the money to your conveyancer can take up to 30 days from the time they send us the forms and we speak to you to confirm your instructions. For an update on the status of your withdrawal, you can contact us by secure message.
We need a completed conveyancer declaration form for each withdrawal you wish to make. But the good news is there’s no limit on the number of withdrawals you can make towards the same house purchase.
Once the conveyancer has received the funds, you have 90 days to complete the house purchase.
If the purchase is progressing but not expected to complete within the initial 90 days, your conveyancer can ask us for a 60-day extension followed by a further 30-day extension if required.
To apply for an extension, your conveyancer will need to contact us by phone or in writing.
Because HMRC pays bonus payments monthly there’s a possibility that this may happen. But, don’t worry, we’ll still receive your bonus payment from the HMRC as normal.
If this is received before your house purchase is completed this can be used towards your deposit. If it’s received after completion this will go into your lifetime ISA account.
Of course! You can access your money whenever you like but, but remember, if you want to take any funds out before age 60, the 25% withdrawal charge will apply.
Learn more about our Lifetime ISA fees and charges.
Absolutely. Your OneFamily Lifetime ISA remains open unless you let us know you’d like to close it. This means regular contributions will continue unless you cancel them.
You can contribute to a lifetime ISA until your 50th birthday, as long as you don’t exceed the overall ISA contributions for that tax year.
As long as your conveyancer returns the funds within 10 working days of the house purchase falling through, we’ll pay the money back into your OneFamily Lifetime ISA.
We need the conveyancer to return the full amount; if they return less than the amount withdrawn, the difference will be treated as a withdrawal. That means we’ll have to apply a withdrawal charge of up to 25%.
If you no longer wish to go ahead, just get in touch with us to let us know. You’ll also need to let your conveyancer know.
If we’ve already sent the funds, your conveyancer must return them, in full, to us within 10 working days. If they return less than the amount withdrawn, the difference will be treated as a withdrawal. That means we’ll have to apply a 25% withdrawal charge.
Learn more about our Lifetime ISA fees and charges.
Retirement product information
You can withdraw money from your 60th birthday.
If you need to withdraw money before your 60th birthday and it's not for a first-time house purchase, a government withdrawal charge of up to 25% will apply to the amount you take out.
However, you can withdraw your money to buy your first home, as long as your lifetime ISA has been open for a minimum of 12 months since your first payment.
The potential withdrawal charge means that you could get back less than you paid in to your lifetime ISA.
Learn more about our Lifetime ISA fees and charges.
You can always withdraw money whenever you need to from a lifetime ISA but you will incur a 25% government withdrawal charge – based on the amount you withdraw. This doesn't apply if it's for a first-time house purchase or you are over 60. This may mean that you get back less than you put in.
If in the unfortunate event that you are diagnosed with a terminal illness, you will be able to withdraw your money without incurring any penalties. Confirmation of your terminal illness will be subject to verification from a medical practitioner.
More information about early withdrawal charges can be found within the terms and conditions.
Account information
Before opening your lifetime ISA, please make sure you've read all the key documentation first. This can be found here on the main product page.
If you've read and agreed to all key documentation provided and wish to apply please proceed to the application page.
When you are applying for a lifetime ISA with OneFamily, you will need to select which fund you'd like to invest in and confirm your payment method. You can choose to pay either via debit card, a direct debit or a transfer in of an existing help To buy ISA.
If you select a help to buy transfer you will be able to complete the application without details of the help to buy account but you'll need to provide these to us by post in order to proceed with the transfer.
To complete the application, you will need your National Insurance number. The application will take approximately 10 minutes.
As part of the application process, we need to verify your identity for fraud prevention and so we can comply with anti-money laundering legislation. We will let you know if you need to provide us with identification when you complete your application.
If you’re not ready to apply yet and want to find out more about OneFamily's Lifetime ISA please visit our main Lifetime ISA landing page here.
Yes, please note that you will need to provide identification documents for the policy owner and the Power of Attorney (POA) and also the power of attorney documents.
You will receive information on documents and certification requirements on completion of the application.
We have created an online account service to make it simple and easy to manage your OneFamily Lifetime ISA.
In your online account, you'll be able to update your personal details, payment methods, fund choice, see your statements and check how your Lifetime ISA is performing.
If you log in to your online account your dashboard will be able to tell you how much your Lifetime ISA is currently worth. Please note this is likely to change daily as the unit price of the funds will rise and fall in line with market conditions.
If your payment isn't showing in your account because you have just opened your account don’t panic. It’s likely we are waiting for the payment to be allocated to the selected funds, please allow a couple of days for this to be populated.
If the payment is not showing after a few days or you have any queries, please send us a secure message using your online account so we can look into this further for you.
Over the course of the current tax year you can pay in a maximum of £4,000 to your Lifetime ISA.
When opening a OneFamily Lifetime ISA we require you to set up a regular direct debit of £25 or alternatively, you can make a £250 lump sum payment.
The £4,000 lifetime ISA limit is part of your overall £20,000 ISA subscription limit that can be invested in a combination of ISAs in the current tax year. The government bonus (up to £1,000 in this current tax year) will not count towards the £20,000 overall ISA limit or the £4,000 lifetime ISA limit.
As with most investment products there are some charges for the on-going maintenance of your Lifetime ISA. We always aim to keep these to a minimum. There is a simple annual charge of 1.1%. Please note charges may vary in the future.
For further information on charges, please refer to the key information documents and the Lifetime ISA Charges page.
If you'd like to change the fund your OneFamily Lifetime ISA is invested in, it's easy to change. Simply log in to your online account and swap your fund there. You can switch your fund free of charge.
For further information about each fund please refer to the Key Information Document relevant to your fund choice.
Within your online account you have a ‘my documents’ section. This area provides you with access to your statements.
Statements will be sent to your documents on a quarterly basis. You will receive an email notification whenever you have a new document to look at. Please note this is an online-only product, we don't send your statements in the post.
Your existing investments will switch into one of OneFamily's funds. The table shows detail of which fund your account will be invested into.
The new investments were chosen as they are most closely aligned to your current fund's investment objectives.
Comparison of differences:
- The Share Centre funds invest in other funds that currently hold shares, fixed interest investments and alternative investments in proportions that can vary within broad ranges. The OneFamily Global Equity Fund contains 100% worldwide shares and the OneFamily Mixed Global Fund contains up to 35% worldwide shares with the remainder in fixed interest investments.
- The risk profiles of The Share Centre funds are slightly higher than the OneFamily funds you will be moved into. We believe the risk and reward profiles are similar over the medium to long term although they will not perform in exactly the same way.
- The ongoing charges in the OneFamily funds are up to approximately 0.5% lower than in The Share Centre funds, based on current charges. This reduction should improve investment returns, allowing for the differences in investment approaches between the funds.
| Current investment ES Share Centre Multi Manager | New Investment OneFamily |
|---|---|
| One fund held: | |
| Growth fund | Global Equity fund |
| Growth & Income fund | Global Mixed fund |
| Income fund | Global Mixed fund |
| Combination of two funds held | |
| Growth fund and Income fund | Global Mixed fund |
| Growth fund and Growth & Income fund | Global Equity fund |
| Growth & Income fund and Income fund | Global Mixed fund |
If you currently hold all three funds your investment will switch the OneFamily Global Equity fund, If you are only holding cash in your account, you will automatically be invested into the OneFamily Global Mixed fund.
There's some important documents you need to read
As part of the transfer process you need to ensure you have reviewed the below important information documents:
Payment information
Don’t worry, it’s normal not to see transactions instantly on your account. This could be because:
- Units from within your account haven’t been allocated yet;
- If you’ve transferred your help to buy ISA to us, we may not have received the payment from the other provider yet, or funds may not yet have been cleared.
The process for all funds to be cleared will take no more than four working days.
Your funds will be invested up to three working days after we receive payment. Once the funds have been allocated you can see them within your online account.
If you would like to set up a Direct Debit please log in to your online account. Select Payments In and follow the instructions.
If you are having any problems please send us a secure message and our customer service team will be on hand to help.
If you are withdrawing your money to purchase your first home this will be paid to the conveyancer. If, however, you are withdrawing funds and you are aged over 60, the money will be paid into the nominated account.
You can set up your nominated account online, by filling in the fields requested and submitting the form from within your online Lifetime ISA account.
If we cannot verify your nominated account online, we will require you to send us proof of your bank details. The acceptable items of proof are:
- A statement, paper or online printout: the transactions can be blacked out. Must be dated within the last three months.
- A letter from your bank. Must be dated within the last three months.
- A cheque or paying in slip from their bank or building society. They should have crossed through the information and written ‘invalid’ on it.
You will receive the money when all payments in your Lifetime ISA have cleared and units have been sold. The payment will be sent to your verified nominated account. If we need verification of your nominated account details, we will need to receive proof of your bank account details before we can proceed.
When we send bank details for Direct Debits or Nominated Accounts to your bank, there is only space for eight digit account numbers. The table below shows how to convert bank account numbers with ten, nine, seven or six digits into a standard eight digit number.
Account numbers with 10 digits
For National Westminster Bank plc account numbers, use the last eight digits only. Ignore any hyphens between the second and third numbers. For example:
0123456789 or 01-23456789
becomes
23456789
For Co-Operative Bank plc account numbers, use the first eight digits only. For example:
1234567890
becomes
12345678
Account numbers with 9 digits
For Santander accounts, replace the last digit of the sort code with the first digit of the account number, then use the last eight digits of the account number only. For example:
00-00-00
123456789
becomes
00-00-01
23456789
Account numbers with 7 digits
For account numbers with seven digits, prefix the account number with a zero (0). For example:
1234567
becomes
01234567
Account numbers with 6 digits
For account numbers with six digits, prefix the account number with two zeroes (00). For example:
123456
becomes
00123456
To claim the government bonus we submit your details to the HMRC*.
Occasionally the HMRC are unable to match the details provided, with the details they hold on file. This is usually because the details HMRC have for you (your name, National insurance number or date of birth) don’t match with the details on your Lifetime ISA.
If this happened we would let you know and you could continue to use your Lifetime ISA as normal. However, you would need to update your details before any government bonuses could be claimed.
The first thing to do would be to check the details on your lifetime ISA. You can do this by going to your ‘Personal Details’ page and checking your forename, surname, date of birth and National Insurance Number are correct. If you need to update any of these details, please send us a secure message. Just so you know we may need to see further documents before we can make any changes to your personal details.
If the details are correct on your Lifetime ISA, you’ll need to check the details held by HMRC. You can do this by:
- Calling 0300 200 3300 (open 8am-8pm Monday – Friday, 8am-4pm Saturday and 9am-5pm Sunday)
- Writing to - HM Revenue & Customs, BX9 1AS, United Kingdom
- Setting up an account on www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account
You can also visit www.gov.uk/tell-hmrc-change-of-details for information on updating your personal details with HMRC.
Fund Information
One fund is designed for shorter term investments, for example if you are saving for your first home, whereas the other fund choice is designed for longer term investments, such as retirement.
Our global mixed investment fund is designed for shorter term investments (5 years or more). Read the key information document here.
Our global equity investment fund is designed for longer term investments (10 years or more). Read the key information document here.
If you have taken out a Lifetime ISA with us and would like to switch your fund you can do this within the online account management portal.
More fund information can be found on the product page here.
To check in on how your Lifetime ISA is performing please log in to your online account.
Your dashboard should then have an up to date record of how much your account is currently worth and your transaction history.
Withdrawing or closing your Lifetime ISA account
You will need to set up a nominated account before you can cancel your Lifetime ISA. There is more information about setting up a nominated account in the payments section of this FAQ.
Once you have a nominated account set up on your policy you will then be able to select to cancel through the payments out section of you online account.
You can withdraw money from your Lifetime ISA to buy your first home or from the age of 60.
Withdrawals for other reason than to purchase your first home or after you reach the age of 60 will be subject to a 25% government withdrawal charge. These withdrawal charges mean that you could get back less than you've paid in.
Learn more about our Lifetime ISA fees and charges here.
Yes, you can transfer your product between providers. It’s important that you check with your new provider that they can facilitate transfers in from other Lifetime ISAs before opening your account.
If you wish to transfer out from OneFamily to a new provider, firstly please check with your new provider that they offer the facility to transfer the Lifetime ISA over. If so, then once we receive the request from the new provider we will carry out the transaction.
If you decide to close your account during the 30 day cooling off period no withdrawal charges will apply.
However, if you choose to close your account after this date, not to purchase your first home or before you are aged 60, you will incur a government withdrawal charge of up to 25%. This means you could get back less than was paid in.
Please note there are some other withdrawal exceptions, which include terminal illness and death. You can find out more about what happens in those situations from in our terms and conditions.
If you choose to withdraw your money before you are aged 60 or not for the purchase of your first home, a 25% withdrawal charge applies on the amount of the money withdrawn. You can find out more about lifetime ISA withdrawal charges here.
Please note the government withdrawal charge does not apply on death or if you are terminally ill. You can find out more about what happens in those situations in our terms and conditions.
Yes, we do accept partial withdrawals, but please remember if you are withdrawing before the age of 60 or not towards the purchase of your first home, a government withdrawal charge of up to 25% applies to the total amount withdrawn. This means you could get back less than you paid in.
You can find out more about Lifetime ISA withdrawal charges here.