Mon, 20 Jan 2025

Child Trust Funds worth billions unclaimed: 'I got £955'

Latonya Skye-Paterson discovers she is one of thousands of people with money to claim on turning 18.

* £1.4 billion belonging to 728,000 people is ready to be claimed from Child Trust Funds
* The average amount in these funds is around £2,000 due to growth and extra money added by family and friends
* Latonya Skye-Paterson, a college student, discovered she had £955 in her account at the age of 20 after a tutor suggested she check online
* A charity called The Share Foundation is calling for automatic pay-outs from these funds if they haven't been claimed by the time account holders turn 21
* This plan would cover accounts where no action was taken by parents or carers to set up a trust fund after receiving an initial voucher from government
* Campaigners believe using National Insurance numbers could help trace account holders and facilitate automatic pay-outs
* A senior MP, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, is backing the automatic pay-out idea and plans to press the Treasury and HMRC on the issue
* HMRC has expressed concerns that implementing this plan would be complex and costly
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