01 / 45 · The Market · Saving
The bonus is not interest. The wrapper still might be.
A Lifetime ISA’s 25% government bonus is a grant, not riba. The cash the wrapper sits on may still be a conventional deposit funding conventional loans.
The Mizan desk · 7 September 2026 · 9 min
Help to Buy ISA is closed to new savers. The Lifetime ISA remains: 25% bonus from the Treasury on eligible contributions, usable for a first home under the cap, or retirement. The bonus is not a return on a loan you made to a bank. It is a government top-up with rules. Most boards do not call that riba.
A tax wrapper is not a ruling. It is a box. Look at what is in the box.
The cash underneath
The LISA is a wrapper. If the wrapper holds a cash deposit at a conventional bank, that bank is lending your money at interest. Some scholars treat ordinary current-account cash as a tolerated qard in a riba economy; some do not. Islamic savings at Al Rayan or Gatehouse use wakala or murabaha with an expected profit rate — expected, not guaranteed.
A household saving a deposit should separate three things: the bonus (probably fine), the underlying (exam the contract), and the house it will buy (the whole of issue 01). Mixing them into ‘ISA therefore halal’ is how you sleepwalk into a coupon.