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Millions of Child Trust Fund accounts were set up but many were lost. If the account belonging to your child was one of these, they may be owed up to £1,000 each. Read on to discover how to check if your child is owed £1,000.
What is a Child Trust Fund?
CTFs are long-term tax-free savings accounts that were set up for every single child who was:
- Born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011
- Born in the UK
- Not subject to immigration controls
Each account is worth up to £1,000 or sometimes even more. Around 6 million were created in total over the 9 year period, with a combined value of over £6 billion.
The problem is that over 1 million of these accounts are now classed as ‘addressee gone away’, meaning that the CTF’s owner is either unaware of their money or unable to access it. Yikes – imagine misplacing over £1 billion of young people’s money.
Even worse, a disproportionately large number of these ‘addressees gone away’ are those from the most disadvantaged of homes.
What is The Share Centre doing?
The problem, fortunately, has a solution. Working with The Share Foundation and the Tax-Incentivised Saving Association, The Share Centre is attempting to reunite each of these young people with their CTFs. Part of this campaign has been to send over 20,000 posters to head teachers around the country in order to raise awareness.
Gavin Oldham, Chairman of both The Share Centre and The Share Foundation, said:
“The Child Trust Fund was a significant initiative designed to improve social mobility, but unless the missing accounts are re-linked swiftly its impact will be lost. We are working urgently and closely with the Government and HM Revenue and Customs to re-link these accounts, most of which were ‘Revenue-allocated’ when first issued.
“Any young people who believe they could be affected are advised to visit this link here where they will be able to find out how to locate their Child Trust Fund account and guidance on next steps.”
How can your child be reunited with their account?
1. Find out where your Child Trust Fund account is held.
This can be done by filling in an online form on the HM Revenue and Customs website. You will need:
- To be the account owner or the child’s parent/legal guardian. If there is no such person registered for the child, enquiries should be directed to The Share Foundation.
- Your Government Gateway ID, which you will have if you have ever used any of the UK government’s online services. To create a new one, you will need your National Insurance number and proof of identity.
2. Contact your Child Trust Fund account provider
Once you know who to contact, do so directly by calling their customer service hotline and work with them to bring all the necessary details up to date. You can find a list of the main CTF providers here.
And that’s all! Feel free to leave comments in the section below.
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