Not using trust fund vouchers could waste £544 million

Monday, October 17, 2005

There has been a renewed call for action to parents across the country today about using Child Trust Fund (CTF) vouchers.

Family Investments, the biggest selling CTF provider, has urged parents to act before the expiration of vouchers.

The Inland Revenue this week begins mailing all parents who have received CTF vouchers but have not done anything with them in a bid to get the vouchers deposited before expiry.

"Writing to individual parents again is a sensible move and will hopefully stimulate the 850,000 people who have failed to act so far," said John Reeve, chief executive of Family Investments.

"This is the first time that parents will have been contacted directly since receiving their voucher many months ago."

He added: "Our previous research showed that well over a third (37 per cent) of busy parents hadn’t got the message via the TV adverts."

Family Investments estimates £544 million of growth could be lost if parent fail to invest the vouchers in time, when a decision about where the investment goes will be out of their hands.

Last week, National Savings and Investments revealed that parents investing in their children's future were becoming less common.