Do we keep quiet about child trust fund?

[AuntieSoap]

DD’s child trust fund matures shortly and I’ve been paying into it every month for 18 years. I split with her dad (exH) in 2015 but even when we were married, it was only me that paid in. ExH is really stingy, earns well into six figures but only pays the bare minimum maintenance and thinks I’m ripping him off in the process.

The CTF is now worth about £16k and so my plan was always to say that’s her parental contribution for university. She’ll only get the minimum loan as my salary is over the threshold, but I’m a single parent with two kids, a hefty mortgage and commuting costs etc so don’t have loads of spare cash. I’m fine, not crying poverty, just giving the full picture.

ExH knows that’s DD has a child trust fund but doesn’t know how much it is. Ideally, he would contribute half of DD’s university parental contribution to make it up to the equivalent of maximum loan. However, if he knows that DD is coming into this money, the likelihood is he won’t help her financially. If he was to pay ‘his share’, some of the CTF money could go towards a lifetime ISA or travelling, or anything really. It’s DD’s money and technically, she can do what she wants with it.

Anyway, I don’t want DD to lie, or put her in a difficult position, but it’s not her dad’s business how much she’s got in the bank. Am I being unreasonable to encourage DD to keep schtum about this, or is that a burden too great for an 18-year old? I suspect it is, so any ideas on how to play this are gratefully received.

Omg i'd absolutely keep quiet about this! I've done something different - DD took the max loan, worked thro uni, and managed, but has about 20k saved by me / my mum in a help to buy ISA (no longer avail sadly) the idea being the govt will add 25% to it when she buys her first home. She also has about 5k in premium bonds which she won't set up management for as she'd need to make a phone call and "Gen z just cant make phone calls" apparently. anyway her degree is in acting, so she'll likely never actually earn enough to pay the loan back.
She's now on a sort of gap year saving to do a masters.

@Miyagi99

"And that £500 will be given directly to the child after she’s 18 until she’s 20. That’s a lot more than anyone I knew at uni had coming in monthly!"

What do you mean by this?

To the poster who thinks £500 excessive - my daughters maintenance loan for London was the max at £13,000 annually. So just over £1,000 a month. She had just under £500/month to pay in rent whilst in halls, it was significantly more when private renting after first year. So if OPs daughter has just £500 / month she'll not be eating.

Exactly @Crafthead - when we did the uni open days round last year accomodation was often around the 8 or 9k mark for the first year.

The wider question is around whether the very existence of the student loan has fuelled a market in creating student accommodation that's rather more expensive and luxurious than was available in the past (my student accom was more like The Young Ones but smaller and more rodent infested) The loan is then constantly playing spiral catch up to the rental market inflating the cost further. All these kids who must have private en suite... DD was told firmly she was sharing her toilet with the rest of the floor lol.

Exactly!

You have no intention of making your daughter lie

You know that he absolutely will ask her how much in the fund

I’m intrigued how you can square the above?

"If there is no agreement in place and child maintenance is due to end when the child finishes secondary school, then a parent may be able to apply to the court under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989 to the court for continued financial support from the other parent. Crucially, the child must be or soon to be in education or training, and the application must be made before the child’s 18th birthday."

This child is not yet 18.

https://www.russell-cooke.co.uk/news-and-insights/news/children-in-university-how-it-affects-child-maintenance

You should eb getting the guts of that a week if both of your kids are his, if he is not self employed you need to go to CMS and get what you are entitled to