Saving for their gap year?

If your child was born in the UK between 1st September 2002 and 2nd January 2011, you probably started a Child Trust Fund for them. The Child Trust Fund was a British labour government initiative to encourage parents to save for their children. Parents were given a £250 cheque from the government, when children were born, to open the trust fund. Parents and other family members are able to add up to £1,200 per year to the trust fund.

The interest earned is tax free and the money is owned by the child, but cannot be accessed until they are 18 years old.

The Child Trust Fund initiative has been scrapped by the British government but those of us who have accounts, will be interested to know what we need to do to manage them now we’ve moved abroad.

Additional payments from the government

When you opened the account, you may recall the promise of additional payments from the government as your children grow older. These have also been scrapped, unless your child turned seven between 1st September 2009 and 31st July 2010 and you were living in the UK at this time. Read more about additional payments here.

If you move abroad

If, like us, you’ve moved abroad since opening the Child Trust Fund account(s), the Child Trust Fund will remain open and you don’t need to do anything, other than inform the trust fund provider of your new contact details.

When your child turns sixteen

For many of us, the next step with our Child Trust Funds is a few years off…when children turn sixteen they take over the management of the Child Trust Fund (although they can’t access the money until they’re eighteen).

When your child turns sixteen you can contact your trust fund provider with your child’s contact details.

We’ve said before that Murphy’s Law means our kids, having grown up in Australia, will probably want to spend a year in London when they turn eighteen. The money from their Child Trust Fund might feed them for a few days!

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