Child Trust Fund campaign latest

2 mins read

Friday 10 May 2024

Tags: Child Trust Fund, Disabled young people


Access to Child Trust Funds for disabled children was the subject of a question in Parliament this week.  

Shadow Disabilities Minister, Vicky Foxcroft, pressed Ministers on what steps had been taken to resolve the issue of 80,000 disabled children at risk of being locked out of the their savings. 

This follows a long-running campaign by parent carer Andrew Turner, supported recently by Contact.

Bim Afolami, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, responded confirming that he was working with colleagues. He confirmed, “this has the support of me and the Treasury and we’ll work across government to get this right”.  

Mr Afolami MP expressed the government’s recognition that the current situation isn’t working for families, adding “we do want to get this problem fixed”.  

It comes on the back of a Westminster Hall debate in March, where Minister Mike Freer committed to speaking with colleagues at the Treasury to solve this problem.

Families need action

Financial institutions such as One Family and Foresters, who have been leading the way in finding an industry fix, were recognised, with the Minister acknowledging the need to work with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to ensure that financial institutions “doing the right thing” were not penalised for their efforts. 

Contact welcomes the positive statements from the Minister, but would like to see them backed up by concrete actions. Along with Andrew Turner, the parent leading this campaign, we met with Shadow Justice Minister Alex Cunningham this week. Mr Cunningham MP confirmed his party’s desire to work with us in finding a solution. 

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