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Chronicle Live

Business

Linda Howard & Aaron Morris

Martin Lewis tells up to one million Brits to check for 'hidden' £2,000 in savings account

Martin Lewis Child Trust Fund HMRC GovUK

Martin Lewis has urged parents of kids between 12 and 20 to check for a 'hidden' Government savings account which they may 'know nothing about'.

The Child Trust Fund is a tax-free savings account - which was set up by the UK Government for every British child born between September 1, 2002 and January 2, 2011. They also provided an initial deposit of at least £250 to start every account with aims of encouraging a future generation of savers

And while many people aren't even aware of the lesser-known haven, they could have a tidy £2,000 tucked away without realising.

The Daily Record reports that taking to social media, the financial expert released a short video, explaining that up to one million people could be sitting on a small fortune and not even know it. The savings accounts mature when the child turns 18-years-old.

Eligible teenagers, who are aged 18 or over and have yet to access their Child Trust Fund account, could have savings waiting for them worth an average of £2,100, according to the latest figures from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The founder of MoneySavingExpert.com explained that some people from lower income backgrounds were given a £500 deposit to start the Child Trust Fund off.

This means that every Trust Fund created between September 1, 2002 and January 2, 2011, had money put in it. Martin said: “Of the 6.3 million Child Trust Funds that were active, it’s thought up to one million of them are lost.

“Meaning people have lost track of them or are unaware you have them - and that could be you.”

He continued: ‘GOV UK estimates that the average Child Trust Fund has £2,100 in, now I think if it was inactive and nobody had put money in you’ve probably got less in than that, but it’s still likely to be £300, £400, £500, £1,000 or possibly more.”

Martin then went on to explain how to check if you have a Child Trust Fund, where it is and how to access it.

How to find your Child Trust Fund

If teenagers or their parents and guardians already know who their Child Trust Fund provider is, they can contact them directly. This might be a bank, building society or other savings provider, alternatively, they can visit GOV.UK here and complete an online form to find out where their Child Trust Fund is held.

If a parent or guardian was not able to set up an account for their child, HMRC opened a savings account on the child’s behalf.

Ask HMRC to find a Child Trust Fund

You can ask HMRC to find a Child Trust Fund if you’re:

a parent or guardian of a child under 18
16 or over and looking for your own Trust Fund

You can either:

use the online form to ask HMRC where a Child Trust Fund is
request the details by post

To use the online form you’ll need:

your National Insurance number
a Government Gateway user ID and password - if you do not have a user ID, you can create one the first time you sign in

You can also do it by post, full details are on the dedicated pages on GOV.UK here.

What else you should know

Teenagers aged 16 or over can take control of their own Child Trust Fund if they wish, although the funds can only be withdrawn once they turn 18 years old. Where children have a Child Trust Fund, families can still pay in up to £9,000 a year tax-free.

The account matures once the child turns 18 years old and no further money can be deposited. They can either withdraw the funds from the matured Child Trust Fund account or reinvest it into another savings account.

Until the child withdraws or transfers the money, it stays in an account that no-one else has access to. The Child Trust Fund scheme closed in January 2011 and was replaced with Junior Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) - find out more about it here.

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