'I found missing £955 sitting in Child Trust Fund account - thousands more people are owed money'
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A woman has revealed how she found £955 in a lost savings account. Latonya Skye-Paterson, 20, is one of thousands of young people who have a Child Trust Account that they didn’t know existed. Child Trust Funds are saving accounts that were offered to children born between September 1, 2002 and January 2, 2011. For each account, the child was given a voucher worth £250, or £500 for those from lower income families.
But if the parent didn't open the Child Trust Fund, then HMRC would have opened one on behalf of the child - this means many people may not realise they even have one of these accounts. You can't open a new Child Trust Fund but you can continue to pay into an existing account. It is only possible to access your Child Trust Fund once you turn 18.
Latonya told the BBC she only thought to check if she had a Child Trust Fund after speaking to her college tutor. She said: "My college tutor told me about it but my brother is a year older and went to the same college and he wasn't told about it so it's luck of the draw who knows, who tells who.
Latonya added: "I found I had £955 in there, which is a lot. A lot more than I was expecting... it helped me so much." The Share Foundation is calling for automatic pay-outs for some Child Trust Funds if they've not been claimed by the time the account holders turn 21. This would apply to "HMRC allocated" accounts that were set up by HMRC on behalf of the parent or legal guardian. Latest figures show there are a total of £927million sitting in 449,000 "HMRC allocated" accounts.
