Pension for Child?

In most cases i think this is a poor idea.
There are much better uses that can be made of the money that will be much more help to the child much earlier in life (that will in many cases mean they can set up their own pension anyway whereas setting up a pension will not help them with education or a house). I'd say its only really a good idea if you've exhausted other options such as building up money for education and housing that can be used at a much earlier age. And also you can see them get the benefit of.

Its also burning your boats, the money is irrevocably committed for some 50 or 60 years hence, many events could transpire in that time making it irrelevant /unwanted (maybe they "go off the rails" at a later age, and you wish you hadnt committed to give them money at all).

It could even engender annoyance, eg "if only you had given me that £20k for the extra deposit to get me started on a house / that course to be a pilot / those doctors studies, now I've got to wait 50 years for a pension instead, fat use that is now when i need it".

Its also a sad fact that at a very young age, something like 1 in 10 wont live long enough to see that pension anyway.

Perhaps we need a re-run of this poll:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5858591

Polls bumping threads is the most annoying feature of this forum (I can turn off the horrible white theme, otherwise that would be #1).

PS I voted no in this poll because I don't have any children. Hope that feedback is helpful

Totally agree with AnotherJoe on this one the tax benefit is marginal (as the child will probably have to pay tax as a pensioner) and there are usually far better things to do with the money that would give the child a better start in life.

Also it's nice to leave the child some things that they can achieve for themselves. I wouldn't have wanted my parents to waste a proportion of my LTA by making child pension contributions. I plan to use my remaining LTA exclusively for higher rate tax relief.

Alex

Agree that there are very many more useful things that you can do in the here and now that would have a (potentially) greater benefit. For example - funding their education (either full-blown private school, or extra tutoring or, later, funding their university costs), paying towards hobbies (horse riding, ice skating, golf don't come cheap and who knows where your child's interest/talents may lie - or what they may lead to). I'm sure you can think of more - in fact just being able to afford to live in a decent area with decent schools will benefit them.

One of my husband's relatives scrimped and saved to put money into a savings account for him. When it matured he got £800. He earns that in a day now.