MSE News: Child trust fund warning as vouchers set to expire

Richard74

Hi, first time poster here!

Can anybody help me any suggestions with this issue?

My daughter was born in August last year and although I received a Child Trust Fund voucher I never cashed it as I wanted to invest her savings into a Child ISA. Now I have received a letter from the company which has been selected to setup my child trust fund which I do not want. After speaking to them and also the HMRC it seems there is no way I can now setup the child ISA as I have a CTF. This seems ridiculous as it has now stopped me from investing £2000 I have for her where I want to invest it. I have been told I cannot cancel the CTF and have even offered to send the £50 voucher back to the government but apparently once it is setup there is nothing I can do.

Help!!

Johnyboy1

[FONT=&quot]
Hi

my son has a CTF and has just reached the grand old age of 7. I have read in various papers that there may be an additional top up available from the government equalling the original amount?

I would appreciate some guidance please.[/FONT]

bowlhead99

Johnyboy1 wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]
I have read in various papers that there may be an additional top up available from the government equalling the original amount?
[/FONT]

There used to be, but see http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/chancellors-statement/ctf-announce-qa.pdf

To save, you opening the link, basically they stopped it a couple of years ago.

opinions4u

The CTF was a brilliant idea.

The government borrows money.

They then give it to the financial services industry who diminish its value.

It's then handed over to an 18 year old who will invariably use it to attend a stag do in a foreign country.

That 18 year old then spends the rest of his life paying excessive tax to repay the debt created by the government borrowing it in the first place.

Starbrite

opinions4u wrote: »

The CTF was a brilliant idea.

The government borrows money.

They then give it to the financial services industry who diminish its value.

It's then handed over to an 18 year old who will invariably use it to attend a stag do in a foreign country.

That 18 year old then spends the rest of his life paying excessive tax to repay the debt created by the government borrowing it in the first place.

I couldn't of said it better myself :beer:

It should be down to the parents to save for their child, I have £400 when I reached 18 a friend who had richer/wiser parents had quite a bit, yet he blew his on a brand new car, partying and other useless things. I put mine towards buy my first car a A reg Ford Fiesta!

Don't have kids if you can't afford them...........

savingmummy

Johnyboy1 wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]
Hi

my son has a CTF and has just reached the grand old age of 7. I have read in various papers that there may be an additional top up available from the government equalling the original amount?

I would appreciate some guidance please.[/FONT]

This used to happen on the childs 7th birthday, but it too stopped so you will receive no further amounts to an existiing ctf account.

NB54

In addition to poor performance of CTFs (see above), more CTFs are starting to charge admin fees. There is a new HM Government e-petition to allow CTFs to be transferred to Junior ISAs - epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45469 (sorry, as a fresher I can't use hyperlinks) - this needs as many signatures as possible, especially with the budget coming up in less than a month.

southerndave

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45469

Devonmum

Hi there I was wondering if anyone could advise me, the government put my sons £250 in somewhere and I have since moved and have no clue who it is with!! I want to move it and start saving. How do I go about finding where it is???

latecomer

Ours sons was automatically paid into Sheffield Mutual but it was for £50 so was probably later than yours. If you know when it was I'm sure you can search online and find where they went by default?