The mutual originally announced a 1 March deadline for savers to transfer their Help to Buy ISA to its cash Lifetime ISA to take advantage of special rules applying for such moves in the 2017/18 tax year.

But given the ‘Beast from the East’ and Storm Emma which have caused severe disruption up and down the country, this deadline has been extended by 24 hours.

Customers need to print and post the forms to the Skipton or hand in transfer forms to any of its 87 branches from Plymouth to Scotland.

However, given the severe weather, these branches are closed today: Carlisle, Exeter, Plymouth, Newcastle, Hexham, Keswick, Edinburgh, Glasgow, North Berwick and Perth.

While Skipton can’t confirm which branches will be open tomorrow, it has confirmed that as long as customers get their transfer forms in the post by the end of tomorrow, it will have enough time to ensure savers qualify for the special rules for this tax year.

Kris Brewster, Skipton’s head of products, said: “The snow has caused widespread disruption across swathes of the UK, and we’re acutely conscious of the impact this is having on people. We’ve received feedback from customers wanting to transfer their Help to Buy ISA to our Cash Lifetime ISA that they simply cannot get out to post their forms either via one of our branches or to a local post box.

“With this in mind, as a mutual we feel it’s the right thing to do to extend our deadline by another 24 hours – meaning people need to post us their transfer forms by Friday 2 March. We want our customers to stay safe in the snow, and we want to offer the best customer service we can. Doing this today, hopefully will help with that.”

Special Lifetime ISA rules this 2017/18 tax year

The LISA launched last year allowing those aged 18-39 save up to £4,000 a year where they’ll receive a government bonus of 25% (excluding investment interest or growth), £1,000 on top.

The money can be used to buy your first home or for retirement, but for first-time buyers, the sum can be used to buy a property worth up to £450,000 nationwide. LISA contributions can continue until the age 50.

As the Help to Buy ISA is already in existence, the government confirmed savers would be able to transfer the amount into a LISA.

Further, until 5 April 2018, you can transfer your H2B ISA including interest (valued at 5 April 2017) to a LISA without the amount contributing to the £4,000 annual LISA allowance. However, the process can take up to 30 days so savers need to act sooner rather than later if they wish to transfer the H2B ISA to other LISA providers.

See YourMoney.com’s Help to Buy ISA transfer to Lifetime ISA for more information.