Child Trust Fund debate in Westminster Hall

Wednesday 13 March 2019 4pm

Each year we send a copy of our annual report to all members of parliament. As a result of this Helen Goodman, MP for Bishop Auckland, arranged a meeting with our chairman Gavin Oldham OBE. Since the reconciliation of Child Trust Fund featured strongly in the report, that was the main focus of the meeting which resulted in Helen Goodman tabling this debate on Child Trust Funds:

Two factual errors should be noted: although it has undertaken a full analysis of, and has a recovery plan for, the whole Child Trust Fund scheme, The Share Foundation is only responsible to government for the administration of Child Trust Funds and Junior ISAs for children and young people in care, not the whole scheme.

Secondly, that analysis is based upon The Share Centre’s account base of 93,000 accounts, with particular focus on its role as a Revenue Allocated account provider. While the Treasury Minister, John Glenn MP, was correct in saying there are 69 Child Trust Fund account providers in total, there were only 14 Revenue Allocated account providers. He accepted after the debate that the Share Centre’s analysis was therefore a reasonable basis for the estimates quoted in the debate.