A BBC expert has revealed how people are receiving letters from HMRC – with potential £2,000 payments owed. Speaking on BBC Morning Live, personal finance expert Laura Pomfret informed hosts Rav Wilding and Holly Hamilton how individuals could be sitting on a substantial sum of money.
Child Trust Funds (CTFs) are long-term, tax-free savings or investment accounts for children born in the UK between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, originally funded by government vouchers. They permit parents to save up to £9,000 annually, with the funds belonging entirely to the child and accessible only upon reaching 18 – yet hundreds of thousands of the accounts remain unclaimed.
Ms Pomfret explained: “The government back then gave parents a £250 voucher and £500 for some low-income families to put into savings or investments for their children. And lots of things you didn’t do as a parent, put it in, the government put it away for the family, and so many people have just forgotten about them.
“The key figures here are quite striking because 750,000 accounts haven’t been claimed. This is totalling £1.5 billion as we’ve kind of highlighted, and the average amount sitting in there, this is the average, is £2,200 because it went in at £250 or maybe £500, and then it’s grown over time.” The personal finance expert explained that numerous individuals, particularly young people aged 18 and above, could be sitting on unclaimed funds without even being aware of it.
She added: “Their parents or grandparents may have forgotten. And so HMRC has announced it’s going to send letters to people aged 21 and over to let them know.
“But if you are someone that’s between 18 and I think it’s going to be approximately 24 given the dates, you can proactively go and see if you can find your child trust fund if you got one, get a hold of it and guess it’s yours and you could be someone who knows someone of that age. If you’re a grandparent, if you’re a parent, have a little think, ask them to check.”
In 2024, more than 450,000 customers, using only their National Insurance number and date of birth, made use of the free GOV.UK tool to track down their Child Trust Fund.
Angela MacDonald, HMRC’s Second Permanent Secretary and Deputy Chief Executive, has said: “Thousands of Child Trust Fund accounts are sitting unclaimed – we want to reunite young people with their money, and we’re making the process as simple as possible. You don’t need to pay anyone to find your Child Trust Fund for you, locate yours today by searching ‘find your Child Trust Fund’ on GOV.UK.”
Third-party agents are marketing their services, offering to track down Child Trust Funds on your behalf — however, they will always charge a fee, with some demanding as much as £350 or 25% of the total value of the savings account. Enlisting an agent can substantially reduce the final sum received, is likely to take considerably longer, and customers must still provide the very same information required to carry out the search themselves.
More information on Child Trust Funds and how to access your savings can be found on GOV.UK.