All disabled young people must have access to savings
6 mins read
Thursday 16 October 2025
We are supporting a parent-led campaign to help disabled children access their savings. Currently, 80,000 disabled young people in England & Wales risk losing £210 million. A difficult and costly process means many are unable to access the savings held in their Child Trust Fund.
In this latest Your Voice, parent carer Sapna and Nilesh explains how hearing the stories of other parents in the same situation helped unlock their daughter Jia’s savings.
A complicated process with up-front fees
We are proud parents to Jia. Jia is 20 with a rare genetic condition, resulting in complex needs including epilepsy, respiratory issues and global developmental delay. We also have two other younger children. Like many parents with disabled children, we diligently saved hard for Jia using the government-appointed Child Trust Fund (CTF).
We started to hear that gaining access to Jia’s CTF might not be straightforward, due to Jia lacking mental capacity. When Jia was 16 we went to our provider Nationwide , who informed us we’d be able to access her savings via the Court of Protection at 18. We revisited then and were told to “do a Court of Protection form”. We very quickly realised that this was not just a simple form! It was a really complicated process, which required us to find medical professionals to fill in paperwork and pay fees up front. We also didn’t want full Deputyship as Jia has no other assets. Sadly, we struggled to find suitable legal advice, and those that could help us quoted £2.5k+.
Having to repeat our story takes its toll
Over the next few months, we talked to friends in similar positions. We asked various practitioners in Jia’s life, such as those visiting from Preparing for Adulthood. Many also didn’t know what to to do. Two more visits to the Building Society with mountains of paperwork (proof of Appointee, PIP, identity etc) followed, each time with Jia and her siblings. Each visit took 1.5 hours, with Jia experiencing multiple seizures during this time.
The first visit we were told that the Court of Protection was the only route and sent away. On our second visit, we had even more paperwork evidence (care plans, paperwork from adult services). We were optimistic there must be another way. This time the Building Society rang their special support team. But we were ultimately sent away yet again with advice to speak to our local council for help. Spoiler alert: they couldn’t.
Like many families, day-to-day we try and go about our lives without thinking of every roller coaster moment that has led us to this point. But when we have to repeatedly tell our story, it really takes its toll. Each conversation leaves you deflated. At this point we gave up, with the process taking time and energy that we didn’t have. Over £10,000 in savings for Jia was just sat there but we couldn’t see a way through.
A turning point
Jia started college, and through conversation with another family, and a different CTF provider, we began researching our options again. This time we came across Contact’s website and then Andrew Turner’s campaign on LinkedIn. This was a turning point, making us realise we were not the only ones going through this and there was momentum to effect change! We also read about some providers releasing funds through the ‘Industry Process’. This uses the Appointee Scheme and means that families were not needing to get Deputyship.
This led to us discovering the Unlock Our Savings Facebook group, run by Maria at Contact and Andrew Turner. We began discovering the journeys of other families and learning from their experiences. We watched other families affected by the issue, speaking out on BBC Breakfast and Moneybox, including Contact Changemakers Claire and Finley. One of the families featured had a Child Trust Fund with Jia’s provider Nationwide. They talked though their experience of accessing their child’s savings. This made us realise that it was possible without going through the Court of Protection.
The phone call we hadn’t dare expect
We headed back to Nationwide, armed with BBC video clips and details from the Facebook group. We met with the Branch Manager, who worked with us to open a case with the special support team on our behalf. This time, we gained some traction. After all, if it was possible to do this for another young person, then why not Jia? After reviewing all of our evidence, some further questions and signing an indemnity form, our case was taken to panel. A week later, came the phone call that we hadn’t dare expect – the Building Society had agreed to release all of Jia’s savings based on the evidence that we had provided. The money was transferred to our account that same afternoon! The relief was overwhelming and took a good few days to sink in. It was one less fight we would have to fight.
We want to share our story to give hope to others. Talking about money can be taboo, but it was through others generously sharing their experiences that we have been able to help Jia access her savings. We can now use that money for what we always intended – to enhance Jia’s life such as upgrading her bathroom.
When we found the Unlock Our Savings campaign, we were in a pretty dark place. The campaign gave us a community and the realisation that we were not alone. There were others actively trying to make this situation better for families like ours.
Our message to the government
Our message to the government is that it was Labour that originally created Child Trust Funds. With that comes the responsibility for making sure that all disabled young people can access their savings. We ask you to finally make this a high priority and fix this urgently for families like ours.
