NS & I Refusing to pay matured Child Bond

carob31

My daughter turned 21 yrs old this year. So I dug out the original child Bond and letter and then claimed it only to receive a letter back saying we changed to a computer system, have no record of your Bond and therefore we have paid it and then every reason given as to why I can't try and get my daughters savings. This is a nationwide scandal! I lose my original deposit of just under £1000 and then 15 yrs of interest. I have the original certificate, letter and application form to claim after the first 5 yrs, which I filled out in 2008 but never sent. Please help and advise.

sevenhills

You also need proof of your bank sending £1,000 to the child trust fund. Then you have everything. Contacting your MP could be your easiest option.

Keep_pedalling

Are you 100% certain these were not cashed in in the past? Children’s Bonds could either be cashed in after 5 years or you had the option to renew for another 5 years. What does the form you failed to return after 5 years say would happen if you did nothing? If the default was to reinvest then you should have had another form 5 years after that although that may have gone to your daughter as control passed to the child on their 16th birthday. 

They also stopped being renewable 6 years ago.

jimjames

carob31 said:

 I lose my original deposit of just under £1000 and then 15 yrs of interest. I have the original certificate, letter and application form to claim after the first 5 yrs, which I filled out in 2008 but never sent. Please help and advise.

Are you sure that wasn't a duplicate and it had been sent and cashed in? 15 years is a long time ago to remember exactly what happened. However to go from "we have no record as we changed systems" to "we've paid it out" is quite a leap, what evidence did they give for that if their systems had changed?

carob31

Thank you for your comments. No duplicates ever requested. 100 per cent sure not claimed. Have the original letter to say I can withdraw on the fifth yr anniversary or keep in until the bond matures at 21 for the child. Ombudsman initially seems to think that I have a good case. Fingers crossed and lesson learnt, will never trust a long term savings account with any 'secure' financial institution in future. Keeping it under the mattress!

retiredbanker1

Do they/ Did they send some sort of annual statement regarding this?

I can't put my hand on the information now but I did think that an annual statement (might be in a digital format) was a right.

wmb194

retiredbanker1 said:

Do they/ Did they send some sort of annual statement regarding this?

I can't put my hand on the information now but I did think that an annual statement (might be in a digital format) was a right.

There should have been, at least if they hadn't been cashed in before some changes to the terms, see below.

The OP should go back through their bank statements at c.five year intervals after they opened the account to check the money hadn't been returned to them. NS&I's memory is usually pretty long e.g., as with Premium Bonds so I'd be surprised if it had somehow lost track of an account.

https://www.nsandi-adviser.com/sites/nsandi-adviser/files/asset/literature/childrens-bonds-changes-leaflet.pdf

Keep_pedalling

wmb194 said:

retiredbanker1 said:

Do they/ Did they send some sort of annual statement regarding this?

I can't put my hand on the information now but I did think that an annual statement (might be in a digital format) was a right.

There should have been, at least if they hadn't been cashed in before some changes to the terms, see below.

The OP should go back through their bank statements at c.five year intervals after they opened the account to check the money hadn't been returned to them. NS&I's memory is usually pretty long e.g., as with Premium Bonds so I'd be surprised if it had somehow lost track of an account.

https://www.nsandi-adviser.com/sites/nsandi-adviser/files/asset/literature/childrens-bonds-changes-leaflet.pdf

According to that leaflet the bond would have finally matured 5 years after the the last renewal before the child reached 16 and correspondence and payment would have gone to the child not the parent, so checking OPs bank statements isn’t going to prove anything.

PenguinVibes

Funnily enough I think I just cashed in my one of these this week! OP I apologise if you’ve already gone down this route but I thought I should ask- are you sure they haven’t moved it over to a residual account? If they have it’s a different form to fill in, over on the downloads and forms section of their website. Your daughter will probably have to fill it in, but it is online thankfully.

It does seem extremely odd for them to say they had no record of it though.