The new system entails a number of fundamental changes to the way in which the tax-free savings accounts are administered. But with the government coming under fire for failing to publicise the changes, many people have sought clarification over exactly what has changed.

Most crucially of all, consumers should be aware that the upper savings limit has been raised across the board for both cash and equity ISAs.

This means that people looking to invest in the popular savings schemes can now put in more money each year than ever before - with the annual upper savings limit for Cash ISAs rising from £3,000 to £3,600, and for Stocks & Shares ISAs from £7,000 to £7,200.

Some analysts had complained that the increase in the savings limit for Stocks & Shares ISAs barely matched up to inflation - with almost a decade having passed since their launch in 1999 - but, no matter how small the rise, the higher allowance should come as welcome news to savers.

One thing that has sadly not changed about the schemes - and something that many financial institutions had been calling for in order to increase their flexibility - is the continued rigidity of the deposit mechanism.

Consumers need to be aware that the upper savings limit is not a net figure - allowing successive deposits and withdrawals - but rather ticks upwards with every single deposit. In layman's terms this means that when you withdraw money, you won't be able to replenish that amount until next year.

Regularly transferring money between your ISA and your current account is therefore definitively not an advisable practice, and until the government succumbs to pleas for a so-called 'withdrawal buffer' you would be well advised to top up your savings only incrementally and in-line with what you can actually afford.

On top of allowing you to save extra money, however, some more mundane changes have also been brought into place. These primarily revolve around the dissolution of the Mini / Maxi ISA distinction, which critics had roundly panned for being unnecessarily complex.

Rather than allowing savers to build up a confusing mixture of two Mini ISAs and one Maxi ISA, therefore, your choices have now been simplified to the much more palatable and self-explanatory distinction between Cash ISAs and Stocks & Shares ISAs.

For old-school holders of a TESSA-only ISAs (TOISA), things have also been simplified. The discontinued savings schemes have now being reclassified as Cash ISAs - while Personal Equity Plans (PEPs) are now Stocks & Shares ISAs.

So the upshot of all this? Well, basically, the new system means you can notch up more tax-free savings than was previously possible, and you can do so in a much less perplexing manner - something that Michelle Slade, spokesperson for Moneyfacts, said "can only be a good thing".

"They've simplified it a lot and that's going to make it better for anybody who wants to take out an ISA," she concluded. "It will be more attractive for them."