Family Investments: Government announcement on CTF

John Reeve, Chief Executive of Family Investments, the leading CTF provider managing almost 500k accounts, said: “We welcome the re-introduction of reminder letters to parents – a move we have been campaigning for some time – which should make a material impact on the take-up of Child Trust Funds. In addition, the consultation on paperless options for CTF applications is a big step towards making it easier for busy parents to set-up their funds. We’ve seen how popular giving parents this option can be – already 45% of Family’s business this year has been done over the phone or online.

"The universal top up figures are encouraging, but show that there is still room for improvement with just under a quarter (24%) of all funds receiving some sort of additional contribution from family or friends. Happily, Family’s experience is somewhat better than this with more than a third of our CTF customers making additional contributions. However, we can all do more and are delighted that the Government is acting to help families on lower incomes to actively engage with the scheme through the support of not-for-profit organisations, so that all children can build up a substantial nest egg.”