Child Trust Funds: Public Accounts Committee Report

The Public Accounts Committee published a report on 23 July 2023 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.

HMRC set up these accounts for children born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, and as of April 2021 the total value of all CTFs was £10.5 billion, and the average account value was £1,911.

Around 887,000 of these accounts are for children who are in low-income families, and the report found that many such children and young adults are unaware that they have CTFs. Providers continue to charge fees up to a cap of 1.5% on the accounts, earning collectively £100 million per year through charges on CTF accounts.

I would advise all young people and their parents to contact HMRC and The Tracing Group, which has set up a Child Trust Fund register, to track down their accounts and withdraw their savings.

If you know your CTF provider, you can contact them directly to withdraw your savings. You can also contact HMRC to find your CTF, and they have set up a tool on gov.uk to find out how to ask HMRC to find your account. You can use the HMRC tool by clicking here: https://www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds/find-a-child-trust-fund

To find your CTF on The Tracing Group website click here: https://www.thetracinggroup.co.uk/ctfregister