Saving scheme for low earners axed. Good or bad decision?

[DaisySteiner]

Details here

No I don't think it's a bad thing.

If you can afford to save and want to save then you should do so. Not just because the government offers you a 50% interest rate.

Seems a good idea to abolish it to me. The article says it was aimed at people on benefits, therefore if it had gone ahead it would have confirmed benefit payments were too high if people could put part of them into savings.

Also not to mention totally unfair to those that work and try to save yet dont get the same interest rate.

It would be a better idea to let us all put £600 into a government-backed savings account and get a guaranteed rate of interest on it if we leave it there for five years.... extend the National Savings Bonds, perhaps? If we all put away £600 a year for five years knowing we'd get a big return back on it at the end, HM Treasury could use the fund to lend money to job-generating ventures like that Stonehenge visitor site and the Sheffield foundry that got dropped. It would be like the National Lottery but we'd all be winners for a change.