Child Savings accounts have changed dramatically in the last 10 years. The number of families saving for children improved dramatically during Labour’s time in power.
During this period many parents received government vouchers to set up children’s savings accounts through the Child Trust Fund (CTF) scheme which finished in 2011. The CTF voucher the government sent to you was only valid for 12 months before it had to be utilised. Many parents will have taken the voucher and invested it within that date with a provider of their choice.
If you did not invest the voucher for any reason (after the expiry date) the HMRC randomly allocated all such CTFs to providers who were registered to receive these accounts.
The range of providers administering revenue allocated accounts at the start was huge. These tended to be bigger with profits friendly societies and investment providers, although small building societies and some stock broking outfits also got involved.
If your account was allocated by the revenue and you do not know which provider it is with you can locate the child savings accounts using the government web service found by visiting the following link:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/tools/childtrustfundclaim/ctfaccount.htm
With Child Trust Fund to Junior ISA transfers being allowable from next April, now would be a great time to give your child savings a health check. Ask the provider questions such as ‘How has my Child Trust Fund Performed?’ and ‘What risk am I taking?’.
Take control of your CTF today. Visit www.thechildrensisa.com