Millions of pounds sit idle as thousands of UK youths miss their Child Trust Funds

Many young adults are unaware that they have government-backed Child Trust Funds worth an average of over £2,000, leaving hundreds of thousands of accounts unclaimed.

Kae Tapscott, a 18-year-old studying performing arts in Tredegar, learned from a social worker that a Child Trust Fund of about £4,000 had been waiting for him, a fund he never heard of before. He warns peers not to assume the government will deliver the money without their own effort. The Child Trust Fund scheme, created for children born between September 2002 and January 2011, now has more than three-quarters of a million accessible accounts still unclaimed, with an average balance exceeding £2,000.

In Wales alone, the Share Foundation puts the unclaimed total at £83 million. Gavin Oldham, chair of the Share Foundation, attributes the shortfall to a lack of information and calls for an automatic payout system for those whose accounts were government-opened. The UK government maintains that the savings belong to the account holders and that it cannot transfer them, but HMRC says it is collaborating with providers and offering a free tracing service on GOV.UK.