Young people aged 16 to 18 could be missing out on thousands of pounds worth of unclaimed Child Trust Funds.

Of the 233,000 Child Trust Funds (CTFs) opened for young people in the North-East, an estimated 81,600 belong to 16-18 year-olds.

In this age range, young people are allowed to take control of their accounts; but account providers report that 58% of 18 year-olds (the age at which they can withdraw their money) have yet to claim their funds, typically worth over £1,000.

A huge proportion of these accounts are ‘Addressee Gone Away’ or have never been registered, thus risking losing access to their money. This particularly impacts more disadvantaged young people.

The Share Foundation, working with HMRC and CTF account providers, is running a UK-wide series of Virtual CTF Events for 16-18 year-olds to help them find their accounts, with the next event arranged for Tuesday August 17 at 7 pm for young people in the North-East.

The Share Foundation’s completely free search facility, https://findCTF.sharefound.org introduces 60% of young people directly to their account provider within two working days (with the remainder requiring HMRC linkage arranged by The Share Foundation).