Child Trust Fund legislation - bombshell in small print?

[LadyWellian]

I've been trawling through the guidance notes on the draft statutory instrument here on the reduction in Child Trust Fund vouchers for something I'm doing at work and it looks to me as though they are going to reduce the vouchers to £50 not just for children born after 1 August, but for children for whom Child Benefit begins to be paid after 1 August.

Now my DD is 10.5 so I can't remember how long it took to get a CB claim set up, but I'm pretty certain it wasn't immediate. So does that mean all the people due around now who thought they were going to get £250 are sadly mistaken? Or is the key in the wording being for whom, not to whom? i.e. is it backdated to birth?

There's another document here that seems to state children born before 2 August have until 1 November to get their CB claim in and get the higher amount.

My brain hurts! Anyone else been looking into this?

God, it is confusing isn't it. I'm due very shortly and had just assumed that we'd qualify for the £250 if born before 1 August.

The wording looks unclear but seeing as you have 3 months in which to claim child benefit, I would think that they will extend this period of grace to the CTF vouchers, as I seem to remember that it's the claiming for CB that triggers the vouchers being sent to you.

Thanks Rocinante. I think I might have panicked too much there, and immediately shot off an email to colleague whose DS was born 2 weeks ago telling her to get those forms in the post naaaahh!