Polls | Gaza | Fact Checker | Support Us
Sign In | Join Free |
UK FACT CHECK POLITICS
UK FACT CHECK POLITICS
 Voting intention Labour Lab 26% Reform Ref 23% Con Con 18% Lib Dem LD 12% Green Grn 12% Poll tracker

Menu

Topics
About
Get Involved
Follow Us

Account

HMRC urges 18 to 23-year-olds to check for forgotten Child Trust Funds worth £2,242 on average

ukfactcheck.com 06 August 2026 at 15:22 View original article →

The original link is the material being checked. It may contain false or misleading claims — we link for transparency, not endorsement.

88/100
Verdict High Trust High Trust – Substantially Accurate (minor unverified detail and one framing caveat)

The article is a sober, service-journalism piece on unclaimed matured Child Trust Funds (CTFs) in the UK.

✓ 23 checks out ✕ 2 disputed ? 4 unverified
☰ Full analysis The complete summary ⌄

The article is a sober, service-journalism piece on unclaimed matured Child Trust Funds (CTFs) in the UK. Every headline statistic — 758,000 unclaimed matured accounts as at 5 April 2025, an average balance of £2,242, more than 60% matured over a year earlier, and a total of more than £1.6bn cited by HM Treasury in June 2026 — is corroborated by HMRC's Annual Savings Statistics coverage, the GOV.UK Treasury press release of 29 June 2026 and multiple reputable secondary outlets. Scheme mechanics (eligibility window 1 Sep 2002 to 2 Jan 2011, ~6.3 million accounts, ~£2.0bn of government money, closure to new entrants in 2011, replacement by the Junior ISA, control at 16 and maturity at 18) match the National Audit Office, the Public Accounts Committee and House of Commons Library material. The Angela MacDonald quotation is verbatim from HMRC's press release, the AJ Bell breakdown (£899m matured over a year ago, ~280,000 pots over £1,000, 27,000 accounts of £10,000+ including 7,000 of £25,000+) is accurately reproduced, and the Contact charity figures (80,000+ disabled young people, ~£210m) and the Ministry of Justice's claim that Court of Protection waits fell from ~24 weeks to ~8 weeks are all traceable. Two items fall short of full verification: the statement that 'nearly 2.3 million accounts had matured by April 2025' could not be matched to a published HMRC table in the sources located, and the description of the government seed as 'at least £250' omits that payments were cut to £50 (£100 for lower-income households) for children born on or after 2 August 2010. Emotional loading is very low (emotion_score 0.08) and the piece is free of self-reference or promotional framing, but it embeds no hyperlinks at all, which weakens reader-side verifiability.

What checked out (23)
  • 758,000 matured Child Trust Fund accounts belonging to 18- to 23-year-olds remained unclaimed as at 5 April 2025 — corroborated by HMRC's press release (30 September 2025) and multiple secondary outlets (The Week, GB News, TC Group, Chartwell).
  • The average value of an unclaimed matured CTF is £2,242 — stated in HMRC's release and reproduced by The Week, GB News and Folkes Worton; the Treasury's June 2026 release rounds this to £2,200.
  • More than 60% of the unclaimed matured accounts had matured more than a year earlier — reported from HMRC's April 2025 data by Chartwell Wealth Management, and consistent with AJ Bell's £899m 'matured over a year ago' figure.
  • HM Treasury put the unclaimed total at more than £1.6bn in June 2026 — stated in the GOV.UK press release of 29 June 2026 and reported by the Irish News, Professional Adviser and MoneyWeek.
  • Eligibility covered children born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 — confirmed by the NAO, the Public Accounts Committee and HMRC/Treasury releases.
  • Around 6.3 million accounts were opened and roughly £2bn of government money was paid in — confirmed by House of Commons Library briefing CBP-9988, the NAO investigation and the PAC report.
  • The scheme closed to new entrants in 2011 and was replaced by the Junior ISA — confirmed by HMRC ('The Child Trust Fund scheme closed in January 2011 and was replaced with Junior ISAs') and the Commons Library.
  • Children in low-income households or local authority care received an additional £250, taking the initial government payment to £500 — confirmed by the NAO investigation into Child Trust Funds.
  • Account holders take control at 16 and can withdraw or reinvest from their 18th birthday — confirmed by HMRC's press release and MoneyHelper guidance.
  • The final accounts will mature in 2029 — confirmed by NAO-derived reporting ('the last CTF accounts will mature in 2029').
  • More than a quarter of accounts were opened by HMRC after parents or guardians did not act on vouchers — the PAC report states HMRC set up the remaining 28% of accounts; AJ Bell repeats 'over a quarter'.
  • The quotation attributed to Angela MacDonald, HMRC second permanent secretary and deputy chief executive, is verbatim from HMRC's September 2025 press release and was reproduced by GB News.
  • 27,000 unclaimed accounts hold at least £10,000, of which 7,000 hold £25,000 or more — reported from HMRC data by City Asset Management; AJ Bell independently cites 'more than 27,000 unclaimed accounts had a balance of £10,000 or more'.
  • AJ Bell's analysis found £899m in accounts matured more than a year previously and around 280,000 pots holding more than £1,000 — stated directly in AJ Bell's own commentary on the HMRC figures.
  • No further contributions can be made once an account matures and funds default into a protected/low-paying account — confirmed by LITRG, MoneySavingExpert and Moneyfacts guidance.
  • A 2023 Public Accounts Committee report indicated many providers charge around 1.5% a year for passive portfolios against roughly 0.25% on a modern Junior ISA platform — the comparison is made explicitly by AJ Bell citing the 2023 PAC report, and repeated by MoneyWeek and Professional Paraplanner.
  • In April 2026 the Treasury announced HMRC would write to 21-year-olds with unclaimed accounts — announced on 23 April 2026 and reported by MoneySavingExpert, Which?, Deeside.com and IBTimes UK.
  • A Child Trust Fund Taskforce including Nationwide, HSBC UK, One Family, Coutts, Sheffield Mutual and The Coventry held its first meeting on 29 June — confirmed by the GOV.UK/HM Treasury press release of 29 June 2026 and PA copy carried by the Irish News.
  • The charity Contact estimates more than 80,000 disabled young people risk being locked out of about £210m because families in England and Wales must apply to the Court of Protection — stated on Contact's own campaign pages, most recently updated in June 2026.
  • The Ministry of Justice says Court of Protection waiting times have fallen from about 24 weeks to roughly eight, and several providers now allow access without a court order — the MoJ figure is reported in March 2026 coverage and Contact's June 2026 update confirms more providers are easing access.
  • The GOV.UK 'Find a Child Trust Fund' service is free, takes about five minutes, requires a National Insurance number and date of birth, and HMRC usually replies within three weeks — confirmed by HMRC-sourced reporting, MoneyHelper and MoneySavingExpert.
  • The Share Foundation offers a free tracing tool — confirmed by MoneyHelper and the Treasury taskforce membership list.
  • HMRC contacts CTF holders by post only, any email, text or phone call is a scam, and paid claims firms have charged £350 or 25% of the account value — confirmed by HMRC-sourced reporting (IBTimes UK, GB News) and MoneySavingExpert's 2024 investigation into a claims firm charging 25% capped at £350 plus VAT.
✕ Disputed claims 2 claims ⌄
  • Nearest-to-contested nuance (not false): 'seeded with at least £250 of government money' is incomplete — the NAO records that for children born on or after 2 August 2010 the initial government payment was reduced to £50, or £100 for lower-income households, so 'at least £250' does not hold for the final cohort.
  • Nearest-to-contested nuance (not false): total government contribution is given as 'roughly £2bn of public money paid into them', which matches NAO/PAC accounting; The Share Foundation and some outlets cite c.£3.3bn on a broader basis, so the figure is definitional rather than wrong.
? Unverified claims 4 claims ⌄
  • 'Nearly 2.3 million accounts had matured by April 2025' — no published HMRC table or reputable secondary source located in this research round states a cumulative matured-account total of ~2.3 million at April 2025. The Commons Library briefing records £1.5bn of matured funds continuing as CTFs at April 2025 but not an account count on this basis; a rough maturity-rate estimate (first maturities from September 2020) would imply a higher figure, so the number may rest on a narrower definition (e.g. matured and still held with the original provider). Marked Unverified pending sight of the underlying HMRC Annual Savings Statistics table — not marked False.
  • 'Others go unclaimed because holders have moved address, forgotten the account exists, or have deliberately left the money invested' — directionally supported by MoneyWeek and AJ Bell commentary, but no primary quantification of these causes was located, so the attribution of causes remains an unquantified inference.
  • The implied currency of Angela MacDonald's role as HMRC second permanent secretary and deputy chief executive at the time of publication (mid-2026) could not be confirmed from a primary HMRC source in this round; the quotation itself dates from HMRC's September 2025 release. Fast-changing senior civil service roles are treated with caution.
  • 'A 2023 Public Accounts Committee report indicated...' — the 1.5% vs 0.25% comparison is verified via AJ Bell's and MoneyWeek's citation of the PAC report, but the exact wording and page reference within the PAC publication itself was not directly inspected; the substance is corroborated by two reputable secondary sources.
⌕ Sources & how we checked Search journal, source grades, confidence ⌄
Confidence

High — Confidence is high because the article's load-bearing statistics were matched to government primary sources (the HM Treasury release of 29 June 2026, HMRC's September 2025 release, the NAO investigation, the 2023 PAC report and House of Commons Library briefing CBP-9988) and independently corroborated by consumer-press outlets of established standing (Which?, MoneySavingExpert, PA copy via the Irish News). Quotation wording, dates and provider names were checked against the originating releases rather than aggregators. Confidence is held short of 'Very high' for four reasons: the '2.3 million matured accounts' figure could not be traced to any located source and is therefore Unverified; the Ministry of Justice waiting-time claim rests on a single low-to-medium quality carrier; the PAC charging paragraph was corroborated through secondary citation rather than direct reading of the report text; and the article embeds no links of its own, so the reader cannot verify any claim without independent search. The residual uncertainty affects peripheral detail rather than the article's central factual proposition, which is robustly supported.

Search journal

unclaimed Child Trust Funds £1.6bn HMRC 758,000 matured accounts

HMRC Child Trust Fund 2,242 average unclaimed 18 to 23

Child Trust Fund Taskforce Treasury Nationwide OneFamily first meeting

AJ Bell child trust fund £899m matured more than a year 280,000 accounts £1,000

Angela MacDonald HMRC second permanent secretary deputy chief executive child trust fund quote

HMRC write to 21-year-olds child trust fund April 2026 Treasury announcement

Contact charity disabled young people £210m child trust funds Court of Protection 80,000

Public Accounts Committee 2023 Child Trust Funds report charges 1.5% junior ISA 0.25%

Court of Protection waiting times child trust fund fallen 24 weeks eight weeks Ministry of Justice

child trust fund 7,000 accounts £25,000 or more 27,000 £10,000 HMRC unclaimed

Find a Child Trust Fund GOV.UK three weeks national insurance number Share Foundation tracing scam claims firms 25%

HMRC Child Trust Fund statistics 6.3 million accounts 2.3 million matured April 2025 mature by 2029

child trust fund quarter of accounts opened by HMRC default vouchers not used £500 low income local authority care

child trust fund claims firms charge £350 or 25% commission warning

matured child trust fund moved to protected account low interest no further contributions

≡ The article we checked Full text as retrieved ⌄
<p>Hundreds of thousands of young adults in the UK are sitting on savings accounts they do not know exist, with more than £1.6bn lying unclaimed in matured Child Trust Funds belonging to people aged between 18 and 23.</p> <p>HM Revenue and Customs figures show 758,000 matured accounts had gone unclaimed as at 5 April 2025, with an average balance of £2,242 for account holders in that age bracket. More than 60% of those accounts had matured more than a year earlier. HM Treasury put the total unclaimed sum at more than £1.6bn in June 2026.</p> <p>The money belongs to a generation born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, all of whom were eligible for a Child Trust Fund — a long-term, tax-free savings account seeded with at least £250 of government money, rising to £500 for children in low-income households or local authority care. Around 6.3 million accounts were opened and roughly £2bn of public money paid into them before the scheme was closed to new entrants in 2011 and replaced by the Junior ISA.</p> <p>Account holders take control at 16 and can withdraw or reinvest the money from their 18th birthday. Nearly 2.3 million accounts had matured by April 2025, and the remainder will mature by 2029 as the youngest eligible holders turn 18.</p> <p>The scale of the shortfall stems in part from how the accounts were set up. More than a quarter were opened automatically by HMRC after parents or guardians failed to act on vouchers posted to them — an early sign of the tracing problems now emerging at maturity. Others go unclaimed because holders have moved address, forgotten the account exists, or have deliberately left the money invested.</p> <blockquote>"If you're between 18 and 23, you could be sat on a savings payout and not even realise it," said Angela MacDonald, second permanent secretary and deputy chief executive at HMRC.</blockquote> <p>The sums involved are not trivial. HMRC data shows 27,000 unclaimed accounts hold at least £10,000, of which 7,000 contain £25,000 or more. Analysis of the same figures by the investment platform AJ Bell found £899m sat in accounts that had matured more than a year previously, and around 280,000 pots holding more than £1,000.</p> <p>Campaigners warn the value of that money can erode while it sits untouched. No further contributions can be made once an account matures, and funds are typically moved into a default account paying a low rate of interest. A 2023 Public Accounts Committee report indicated many providers charge around 1.5% a year to manage passive portfolios, against roughly 0.25% on a modern Junior ISA platform.</p> <p>Ministers have stepped up efforts to reunite holders with the cash. In April 2026 the Treasury announced HMRC would write to thousands of 21-year-olds — a cohort chosen because their addresses are most likely to be current through PAYE or student finance records. A Child Trust Fund Taskforce bringing together the Treasury and providers including Nationwide, HSBC UK, OneFamily, Coutts, Sheffield Mutual and the Coventry held its first meeting on 29 June.</p> <p>Separately, the charity Contact estimates more than 80,000 disabled young people risk being locked out of some £210m because families in England and Wales must apply to the Court of Protection to access the funds on their behalf. The Ministry of Justice says waiting times have fallen from about 24 weeks to roughly eight, and several providers now allow access without a court order.</p> <p>Anyone who thinks they may have an account can trace it free of charge:</p> <ul> <li>Use the "Find a Child Trust Fund" service on GOV.UK, which takes about five minutes and requires a National Insurance number and date of birth. Most results arrive within three weeks.</li> <li>The Share Foundation also offers a free tracing tool.</li> </ul> <p>HMRC stresses that genuine correspondence about Child Trust Funds arrives by post only. Any email, text or phone call is a scam, and paid claims firms — some charging £350 or a 25% cut — are unnecessary.</p>

Share this fact check

← Check another article or image