Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal from The Share Foundation for automatic release of Child Trust Funds at 21 years old.

The government is aware of suggestions that a system could be developed for paying out the savings held in matured Child Trust Fund (CTF) accounts that have not been accessed by the account owners by the age of 21.

The savings in these accounts belong to the account owners and are held by private sector CTF providers. The government does not have authority to close the accounts or to access and transfer the savings in them. The infrastructure required to implement the proposal does not currently exist within government departments or CTF providers.

The Government is committed to reuniting all young adults with their CTFs. HMRC works with CTF providers, industry representatives and others such as the University and Colleges Admissions service, to explore ways of enabling account owners to be aware of and trace their accounts.