Child Trust Fund – on your radar?
His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has reminded teenagers and people in their twenties to claim their matured Child Trust Fund (CTF) savings. CTFs are long-term savings accounts set up for every child born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011. The government provided an initial deposit of at least £250 to open the account and encourage future saving. An estimated 6.3 million CTF accounts were set up throughout the duration of the scheme, containing about £9bn. You can continue to add up to £9,000 a year to an existing CTF until age 18. The last CTFs will mature in 2029. To trace a CTF visit www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds/ find-a-child-trust-fund.
Women are still financially less secure
According to a recent government research paper1 women are far less positive about their financial future than men. Just one in five (20%) women feel positive, compared to more than a third (35%) of men, while only 13% of women are confident that they have enough saved towards retirement, compared to 27% of men. Former Pensions Minister Baroness Ros Altmann said, “It’s alarming that… the gender savings and pension gap remains, and women are still not confident that they have saved enough for retirement.”
1Cushon, 2022
The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. The past is not a guide to future performance and past performance may not necessarily be repeated.
