Speeches by Dean.

“I have just a couple of data points. I do not expect you to be able to answer them now, but it would be good to know if you would have that data and could supply it to us afterwards. Mr Byrnes, you mentioned that 80% of your users are on incomes of £40,000 and lower, which is really interesting in terms of the distribu…”

“The second data point that I would like to ask for, if you have it, is how many people continue to pay into their LISA products after completing their house purchase. I appreciate that it is early days for some, but we should have some years of data and some indication of whether people are putting in anything at all, …”

“Just to clarify, I have a positive balance in my LISA, but that is just because of what was left over after paying down the deposit.”

“No. It was about 60p before, but, anyway, I am talking about those making active investments after the point of purchase.”

“There are quite a lot of variables in this conversation, so I want to try to hold a couple of them, if I can. Let us assume that the withdrawal penalty is changed in the way that most of you have proposed, so that there is no effective fine on top of the bonus element afterwards. Let us also assume that some sort of in…”

“I am going to disclose at the beginning that I am a lifetime ISA user. I used it to help save for my first flat, but I will admit that there is now 70p sitting in that account and it has been that way for a number of years. Funmi, is my experience common? Have a lot of people done that, so essentially emptied their acc…”

“Can I just ask you a follow-up question, because this is mainly a regional problem as well? London and the south-east are the reason why there is so much upward pressure on the cap. You have said to me that it is too complex to do that. We have had previous products such as help to buy where there was quite a clear reg…”

“Can we assume that the withdrawal charge is now down to 20%, just for the sake of argument? We will have an index link. We will have the withdrawal charge at 20%. Mr Byrnes, you said that most of your users are not getting anywhere near this cap anyway.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. Social media has the power to provide spaces for connection, free speech and content creation that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. I remember what it was like to be a part of the first generation of teenagers to use social media. I hear the likes…”

“Yes, please.”

“We will have it minuted, I am sure. Mr Johnson, everybody has this impression of the products behaving in this way. Most people are going for the first-time buyer use. I appreciate that you are putting forward good arguments for why somebody might want to use it as a retirement product, but would it not be more straigh…”

“To come back to my core question, is your primary argument that there are too many products out there already, so we do not want to add another retirement product in, even if you think that this product has more value than others? Is that your core argument for not splitting up the product?”

“My colleague might pick up on that, but I have one final broader question and it speaks a bit to the value-for-money element, as Ms Blake was explaining. Is one of the benefits of this product the actual behaviour and the saving habits that it generates? I am going to reflect on my own experience. Trying to save for a …”

“We will come back to the penalty element. I guess I will ask the rest of the panel this question. There is potential that the Government could design a different product that maybe offers a similar financial incentive. Is there anything unique about this product that you think should be retained in whatever the Governm…”

“Maybe I could ask a follow-up. It was £500 million in the last tax year, but we all accept that the product is not being taken up at the rate that it could be. Hopefully, if we fix that problem and maybe all the major high street banks get involved, it will be taken up by a lot more people. That would be good for those…”

“I accept that. For the sake of this argument, it may well be worth accepting that the Government have decided to do away with the withdrawal penalty, because I want to get to the equity point. Ms Olufunwa, you said earlier that it is free money, so who would not take it? Mr Lewis, you said that a few thousand pounds is…”

“Of course. I was quoting.”

“My concern is that people would see that as free money. Actually, it is taxpayer money and it becomes a deadweight loss to the Chancellor. Do we think that we need to have a hard cap in place to protect the taxpayer?”

“Mr Byrnes, just to follow up on your comment, you described the huge benefits that you have seen for users of the ISA, and said that it is too early to tell on the retirement product end. What we heard from the consumer panel earlier was a concern that we might be restricting the pipeline of people who would take up th…”

“I have just a couple of data points. I do not expect you to be able to answer them now, but it would be good to know if you would have that data and could supply it to us afterwards. Mr Byrnes, you mentioned that 80% of your users are on incomes of £40,000 and lower, which is really interesting in terms of the distribu…”