Valerie Vaz MP highlights unclaimed savings from Child Trust Funds

I welcome the report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which uncovered that billions of pounds are sitting in the Child Trust Fund (CTF) accounts of millions of young people aged 12 to 20, young people born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, who have not claimed the money saved in their CTF accounts.

I am concerned that the Committee found that many young people have not claimed these savings, now totalling over £1.7 billion which have been forgotten in their accounts by everyone except financial institutions profiting from the scheme.

CTF account providers continue to charge fees up to 1.5% per year, and they can collectively earn up to £100 million through these charges if the savings are not withdrawn.

HMRC initially set up the CTF accounts for 6.3 million children, around half of which were for children in low-income families. But the report highlights in particular that young adults from low-income backgrounds are now unaware of their CTF accounts’ existence, the very people who need it most.

I urge all young people to contact HMRC: https://www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds/find-a-child-trust-fund and The Tracing Group, which has set up a Child Trust Fund register: https://www.thetracinggroup.co.uk/ctfregister

These tax-free savings belong to young people, and it is their right to claim these savings immediately.”