Savings alert to 280,000 Brits with unclaimed £1,000 pots they’re ‘unaware of’ | Personal Finance | Finance
Savings pots worth thousands of pounds are going unclaimed by Brits who may not be aware they exist.
Child Trust Funds are long-term, tax-free savings accounts set up for children born between September 1, 2002, and January 2, 2011, with an initial £250 contributed by the Government. Account holders can withdraw the money once they turn 18. However, many may have forgotten they have one, leading to thousands of pounds worth of unclaimed funds. Collectively, a staggering £1.5billion is sitting in these pots, and experts have urged people to check if they own a share of it.
Laura Suter, director of personal finance at AJ Bell, said: “The Government really needs to get a grip on the problem of lost Child Trust Funds (CTFs) – where a child has turned 18 but their CTF funds go unclaimed.”
According to the latest Annual Savings Statistics, 758,000 accounts have matured but have not been claimed, and their total value has grown by another £100 million since last year to £1.5billion.
Ms Suter added: “Well over half of the money in these accounts – £899million – matured over a year ago.”
Of the hundreds of thousands of lost pots, more than 27,000 accounts have a balance of £10,000 or more, and 280,000 pots contain over £1,000.
Ms Suter continued: “The problem arises as many parents and children aren’t aware they even have the account, or don’t know which provider the money is with or how to track it down.”
She warned: “Some CTF providers are also charging huge sums for managing the accounts, eating into the money.”
A report published by the Public Accounts Committee in 2023 estimated that providers could have been collectively earning up to £100million per year through charges on Child Trust Funds, and very few were actively attempting to link forgotten accounts with their owners.
How to track down a Child Trust Fund
To locate their accounts, people can use the free “Find your Child Trust Fund” tool on GOV.UK.Savers will need their National Insurance number, which can be found easily using the HMRC App, and their date of birth to access the information.
The accounts are held by banks, building societies, and other savings providers until they are withdrawn or reinvested. They are not held by the Government.
The official locator tool is free to use, so you won’t need to pay third-party agents extortionate rates to source your account for you.
These services can reduce the amount received and may delay the process, as users still have to provide agents with the same information required to search for the accounts themselves.
The Child Trust Fund scheme closed in 2011, with the option of investing in a Junior Individual Savings Account (ISA) available instead.
