Over 2.5 million children now benefit from the Child Trust Fund

The Economic Secretary, Ed Balls, today announced that over 2.6 million Child Trust Fund accounts are now open.

For vouchers issued in 2005, three quarters of all parents opened their children’s accounts themselves. The new figures come after the successful Child Trust Fund (CTF) Week, which encouraged parents and family members to help top up the funds in their children’s accounts and help raise awareness of the CTF amongst hard-to-reach groups.

Ed Balls said:

“It is really encouraging that three in four parents are opening accounts for their children. I want to encourage parents, grandparents and whole families to use the Child Trust Fund not just as a saving tool but as a way of teaching children about money and savings. I was pleased that so many MPs, members of the industry and voluntary sector came together to promote the Child Trust Fund during our week. We continue to pursue new approaches to informing people about the Child Trust Fund including piloting the sending of reminder letters to parents yet to use their vouchers.”

The CTF was introduced for all children born in the UK on or after 1 September 2002, with a £250 voucher from the Government to start off each child’s account, and a further £250 paid into the account at age 7. Children from lower-income households receive an extra £250 top-up at birth and at age 7. The latest figures show that for vouchers issued in 2005 a total of 2.19 million accounts were opened: 1.66 million by the parents themselves and the remainder opened by HM Revenue and Customs on behalf of eligible children.

Today the Economic Secretary announced that HMRC are trialling personalised reminder letters to parents who have not used their voucher within the first eight months. In total 50,000 reminder letter have been sent to parents at this stage.