Pensioner bonds availability to be extended

Chancellor George Osborne has (8 February 2015) announced the government will extend the availability of its hugely popular 65 plus pensioner bonds.

Highlighting latest sales figures which show it has seen the biggest sale of any retail financial product in Britain’s modern history, the Chancellor confirmed that the pensioner bonds will now be on sale for 4 months, until 15 May 2015, so that everyone who wants to invest can do so.

£7.5 billion of the 65 plus pensioner bonds have been sold so far, with over 610,000 savers purchasing bonds since their launch in January this year.

Following this unprecedented demand for products that, with annual interest rates of 4% for the 3 year bonds and 2.8% for the 1 year bonds, will pay savers the best available rates in the market, the government is extending the availability of the bonds to ensure all pensioners aged 65 and over who want to benefit from these bonds will have time to do so, up to a specific date.

By keeping the bonds on sale until 15 May 2015, we expect the total number of older savers benefitting from the bonds to be over one million.

While the formal projection for the total amount of 65 plus bonds that will be sold will be provided at next month’s Budget – which is in line with usual practice – the government now expects that the total issuance could be around £15 billion of these products. The government had originally allocated £10 billion for these bonds.

Chancellor George Osborne said: "Our 65 plus pensioner bonds have been a huge success, and are already helping hundreds of thousands of older savers who have done the right thing, by boosting the return on their savings and securing a more comfortable financial future.

"I want to ensure as many older savers as possible can take advantage of these market-leading bonds, which is why I’m confirming today that potential savers will have months to invest in these hugely popular products, if they wish.

"It’s part of our long term economic plan to support savers and boost hardworking peoples’ financial security at all stages of life."

A key part of the government’s long term economic plan is to support savers at all stages of their lives and help hardworking people secure their financial futures. That is why the government announced at Budget 2014 that National Savings and Investments (NS&I) would launch 2 fixed-rate, market-leading savings bonds, and why the Chancellor confirmed in December last year that the interest rates these bonds would pay are significantly higher than any others currently offered in the market.

With an investment limit of £10,000 per bond per person, the bonds are available directly from NS&I by post, phone or online, and will provide certainty and a good return for those who have saved all their lives and now rely on their savings in retirement.

Today’s confirmation that the 65 plus bonds will remain on sale until May 2015 does not affect those savers who have already taken the opportunity to invest in these market leading products, if they have already invested up to the available limit of £10,000 per bond per person.