Isa Allowance: How Much You Can Put in an ISA Each Year

Adult limit: £20,000 per tax year · Lifetime ISA cap: £4,000 (inside the £20,000) · Tax year reset: 6 April · FSCS cash protection: £120,000 per authorised firm · FSCS investments: £85,000 per person per firm

Six figures frame the rest of this piece, and the gap between the two FSCS numbers is the one that surprises most readers.

Can I put 20,000 in an ISA every year?

Yes, up to £20,000 in total across every ISA you hold, which is the adult limit for the 2026/27 tax year.

How the £20,000 annual limit works

• The total adult ISA subscription limit is £20,000 across all ISAs for the 2026/27 tax year, which runs from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 (GOV.UK (official ISA rules)).
• Money paid into a Lifetime ISA counts toward that same £20,000, so it reduces the room left for cash and stocks and shares ISAs.

Why unused allowance does not carry over

• Unused allowance does not roll over to the next tax year, so room left at 5 April is lost (AJ Bell (investment platform)).
• Each 6 April starts a fresh allowance, so a payment made in one tax year cannot fill the next year’s room.

Nine rules, two tracks: the adult and Lifetime limits share one pot, while Junior ISAs and FSCS protection follow their own rules.

The implication: the reset gives every saver a clean slate each April, so the real planning question is whether the full £20,000 gets used before 5 April.

When did the ISA allowance increase to 20,000?

The sources checked for this piece do not include a dated primary record of when the allowance first reached £20,000, so no date is given here.

What the sources do document is the most recent change attempt. Which? (consumer money guide) reports that the plan to cut the cash ISA allowance to £12,000 for under-65s from April 2027 was scrapped in the latest Autumn Budget.

Dated milestones

• 28 October 2026: NS&I (state savings institution) confirms that ISA allowances will not change in 2027 and earlier plans are cancelled.
• Midnight, 29 October 2026: the Lifetime ISA withdrawal penalty rules changed, as AJ Bell (investment platform) reports.

The implication: recent changes were proposed and then pulled back, so the £20,000 figure is the one to plan around rather than a date that moves.

Can I pay into two different ISAs in the same year?

Yes, but the total is what counts, not the number of accounts.

According to Fundology (independent ISA guide), savers have reportedly been able to pay into more than one ISA of the same type in one tax year since 6 April 2024, provided the total stays within £20,000. Providers cannot see contributions made elsewhere, so keeping the running total falls to the saver.

The £20,000 limit applies across all ISAs combined

• Cash, stocks and shares and innovative finance ISAs draw from one pot, as the snapshot above shows.
• Junior ISA payments do not count toward the adult limit (Yorkshire Building Society (building society)).
• The Lifetime ISA sits inside the same pot, with its own £4,000 cap.

Cash and stocks and shares ISAs share one limit

• Splitting £20,000 between a cash ISA and a stocks and shares ISA changes the mix, not the total.
• Moving money to a different provider creates no new room, because the same £20,000 follows you across accounts.

Three ISA types, one pattern: only the Junior ISA sits outside the adult pot, and the Lifetime ISA carries a government bonus while still drawing from the same total.

Four steps keep the running total honest across providers:

1. Add every payment across cash, stocks and shares, innovative finance and Lifetime ISAs before you pay in again.
2. Keep one running total in one place, because each provider only sees its own deposits.
3. Leave Junior ISA payments out of the adult total, since they count separately.
4. Review the total before 5 April, because unused room does not carry forward.

The trade-off: a split across providers spreads your savings, but it also makes the total harder to track. According to Monzo (consumer finance guide), excess payments may be removed by the provider, including the interest they earned.

The pattern: one running total is the only reliable check, because no single provider can see the whole pot.

Can I give my wife 20k to put in an ISA?

The sources checked for this piece do not set out a rule for moving money into a spouse’s ISA, so there is no verified answer to quote here.

What they do cover is what happens after a death. Hargreaves Lansdown (investment platform) explains that a surviving spouse or civil partner can receive an Additional Permitted Subscription, which raises their allowance for that year.

Whose allowance is used when money is gifted

• The £20,000 figure is the adult limit, so each subscription counts against the ISA holder’s own limit.
• Gifted cash falls outside the sources checked here, so the rule for it is not confirmed.

Transfers between spouses and civil partners

• An Additional Permitted Subscription is tied to the death of the account holder, not to a transfer made while both people are living.
• Tax on any transfer between spouses is not covered by the sources checked here.

The catch: without a confirmed rule for gifted cash, the safe move is to ask your provider before you transfer money into someone else’s ISA.

Is it safe to have more than 85000 in a stocks and shares ISA?

Two separate questions sit under this one: how much you can pay in each year, and how much the FSCS will pay out if a firm fails. The £20,000 limit answers the first, and the FSCS limits answer the second.

The FSCS covers investments up to £85,000 per person per firm if the firm fails (Investing Desk (personal finance publisher)). Cash gets a larger limit of £120,000 per authorised firm, and brands sharing one banking licence count as one firm (MoneyHelper (government-backed guidance)).

Investment losses are not covered

• The FSCS does not pay out for falls in market value, so a fall in investment value stays with the investor.
• Stocks and shares ISA investments can fall in value and are not guaranteed.
• Holding above £85,000 with one firm leaves the excess outside FSCS protection if that firm fails.

Two voices sum up where the rules sit now and where protection stops.

“On 28 October 2026, the government announced that ISA allowances would not be changing in 2027. Any previous plans to change allowances are now cancelled.”

NS&I (state savings institution)

“The FSCS can’t accept claims for poor investment performance. If your investments fall in value, that loss is not covered.”

Investing Desk (personal finance publisher)

The implication: the £20,000 limit controls what you pay in, and FSCS controls what you recover, so a large stocks and shares balance needs its own protection check.

For a saver with money to move this tax year, the choice is clear: track one running total across every ISA before each payment, or accept that money paid above the limit may be removed along with the interest it earned, according to Monzo (consumer finance guide).

Frequently asked questions