Child Trust Fund

(asked on 27th January 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the total value of unclaimed funds currently residing in Child Trust Fund accounts.


Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 30th January 2020

HMRC is working closely with Child Trust Fund providers and the wider industry to assist those who have difficulty in locating a misplaced Child Trust Fund account.

HMRC:

  • has improved the National Insurance Notification (NINO) letter, which is sent out prior to a child’s 16th birthday, to raise awareness of the Child Trust Fund scheme;
  • has worked with a charity, The Share Foundation, to develop a process whereby the charity can link children with their account; and
  • is developing a simplified system for account tracing which will assist those with a limited digital footprint.

In addition, while CTF providers are already required to send regular statements to the contact for the account, regulations were laid on 15 January which will require them to send a statement in the year the child reaches 17 in anticipation of the maturity of the account.

If a child, or their parent, does not know which provider is managing the child’s account, HMRC provides a tracing service, which can be accessed at: www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds

As accounts do not begin to mature until September 2020, no accounts are currently unclaimed, and the total value of unclaimed funds is zero.

The regulations laid on 15 January ensure that any CTF account not claimed by the account holder when they turn 18 will retain its tax-free status until it is claimed. These regulations also provide that funds in a mature CTF may be transferred to an ISA without counting towards the individual’s annual ISA subscription limit.

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