1 in 4 Brits say they set up a Child Trust Fund that is now lost - Gretel study

• One year anniversary in September of first wave of Child Trust Funds (CTFs) maturing

• Over 500,000 CTFs thought to have matured in the nine months to 31 May 2021 and 58% still unclaimed2

• Gretel estimates that there could be 1m lost or dormant child trust funds valued at £2.2bn

As the one-year anniversary approaches of the first wave of Child Trust Funds (CTF) maturing this September, research from Gretel has found that almost one in four (23%) of all British adults believe they might have lost a CTF, or let one set up on behalf of children or grandchildren become dormant.

Six million CTFs1 were set up for children born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, and about 525,000 accounts are thought to have matured between 1 September 2020 and 31 May 2021, according to The Investing and Saving Alliance (Tisa), with 58% of these (305,000) still unclaimed2.

Gretel, the free online service which helps people track down lost bank accounts, pensions, investments and child trust funds, estimates that there are as many as 1 million lost or dormant child trust funds valued at approximately £2.2 billion3.

Duncan Stevens, Chief Executive of Gretel said: “At Gretel, we want to get the £50 billion of dormant, lost and unclaimed money from savings, investments and pensions back into the hands of the consumer, where it belongs – including the £2.2 billion sat in lost and dormant CTFs. Our belief is that consumers are entitled to receive all the money due to them and should not have to pay to get their own money back, nor face numerous complex barriers to access it. We have opened pre-registration because this is a time of financial uncertainty and being reunited with forgotten money could make all the difference to some people.

“Industry figures show that over 50% of all CTFs maturing in the last nine months have been unclaimed, suggesting that dormancy and loss is a real issue in this market, at a time when many young people could no doubt benefit from accessing cash that is rightfully theirs.”

Research by The Share Foundation4 and the Tax-Incentivised Saving Association (TISA) found that of the one million lost accounts, a third are owned by families in receipt of Child Tax Credit. As such, the organisations calculate that nearly 400,000 lost accounts belong to these children, with a combined value of around £600m.

Gretel estimates that 19.6 million people in the UK have become disconnected from financial services products including 1m child trust funds, 10 million bank accounts, 2.5 million life insurance policies and 1.6 million pensions, which has generated dormant or unclaimed money with a collective value of over £50 billion2.

As Gretel prepares to launch and bring on CTF providers, banks, insurers and pension companies, consumers should log on to www.gretel.co.uk to pre-register to find lost assets.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The research was conducted by Opinium Research between 7-11 August 2020 among 2,003 adults in the UK.
1 – according to Which https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/01/child-trust-fund-savers-turning-18-to-get-isa-tax-boost/
2 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/untouched-500m-in-childrens-savings-7k7wxcc8m
2 - Based on Intelliteq’s calculations below:
Financial Product Total lost/dormant Number of people effected Average value
Pensions £37bn 1.6m £23,125
Shares £2.5bn 2.0m £1,250
Bank & Building Society Accounts £4.5bn 10.0m £450
Wealth & Investments £2.8bn 1.0m £2,800
Life Insurance £2.0bn 2.5m £800
Child Trust Funds £2.2bn 1.0m £2,200
NS&I £60m 1.5m £40

Notes to editors
Gretel is part of IntelliTeq, which focuses on simplifying complex financial processes. IntelliTeq solutions assist companies in complying with regulatory challenges around data and empower customers through the use of proprietary technology.


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About Gretel

Gretel is part of IntelliTeq, which focuses on simplifying complex financial processes. IntelliTeq solutions assist companies in complying with regulatory challenges around data and empower customers through the use of proprietary technology.