As the end of the tax year approaches, four out of 10 Brits admit to having no intention of using their ISA allowance, moneysupermarket.com has claimed.

Research by the price comparison website has revealed that 37 per cent of Brits will not utilise their ISA allowance before April 5, with a quarter of savers citing a lack of understanding as the reason for not investing their money in an ISA, while 51 per cent said they simply cannot afford to save.

Meanwhile, one in four people admitted that they could not be bothered to save at all.

Encouragingly, 50 per cent of Brits have already invested their ISA allowance for this year, as cash ISAs proved popular with a 70 per cent take up, while 19 per cent opted for stocks and shares ISAs.

With the Base Rate remaining at the historic low of 0.50 per cent and inflation increasing to 3.7 per cent, the price comparison website suggests that investing in an ISA can be a ‘useful tool’ to make savings worker harder.

Explaining the benefits of opening an ISA, Kevin Mountford, head of banking at moneysupermarket.com said: “If you are a UK taxpayer, it makes total sense to utilise your tax allowance so you can make your savings work harder for you.

“If you are a higher rate tax payer then it is even more important, and with the new 50 per cent tax bracket coming into force from 6 April, there will be many consumers who will be looking to review their finances to protect against taxation.”

With the new ISA allowance set to be enforced from April 6 – allowing all savers to invest up to £5,100 in a cash ISA and £10,200 in a stocks and shares ISA – Mr Mountford believes that the benefits of a tax-efficient wrapper “should not be overlooked”.

“Savers are quite rightly feeling a little hard done by at the moment but ensuring you’re getting the best return on your money is more important than ever in a low-rate environment. ISAs offer a valuable tax-break helps those that are already putting cash aside to save even more,” he said.

© Fair Investment Company Ltd