e-petition to merge CTF with junior ISAs

[seb1]

Junior ISA petition

I might be being an idiot here, but wouldn't this mean, by logical extension of the argument, that all the other children who are now opening ISAs would be able to claim the equivalent of the CTF from the government? I don't think that would work......?

no, it's not about asking for the CFT free £250 for all children, it's about allowing those who happen to have had the free money the same investment opportunities and tax free status as all other children

those who have the CTF are limited to CTF accounst, which are much more restricted in investments funds, often much higher chages and poorer performance than the range of funds on offer to all other children via the junior ISAs

CTFs weren't fair as older children couldn't have the same tax free accounts, now they're let older and younger ones have the Junior ISAs, but left those in the middle stuck with poorly performing investments that are very limiting

Much fairer to let all children have JISAs :) thanks for the link to the petition seb :)

Older children could have CTFs... My own DS, born in 2000, was too early for the government voucher scheme but I'd set one up even before Brown made the announcement. I'm not sure if I can stop contributing to it and take out a Junior stocks and shares ISA... as we're not part of the government scheme, I'd hope there would be some facility.

how? as dd1&2 are both too old for CTFs and I've asked several CTF providers and always been told it wasn't possible

there are children's savings plans and investments, but they don't have the same tax status as the CTF

I'm very pleased the JISAs have been launched, just wish dd3 & ds could have them too! I'd even give back (what's left of) their £250 if it meant all 4 dc had the same sort of investments - makes it fairer

My mistake. I've just checked and what I've got is a Children's Unit Trust which was the tax-free product before the CTF voucher came into being. One word different! It's still available for children that didn't qualify for the CTF scheme alongside the Junior ISA.

Signed, thanks for the link

I totally agree with having the same facility for all your children. Dd's trust fund is currently worth 1300.00. Dc2 is due in feb, firstly i cant afford to save to that level to match hers, although goodness knows what it will end up at. Probably less. But i'd like to have the same facility for each child.

Is there a way of saving for children without the money automatically passing to them at say 18? If anyone sends cheques for dd then i put into her ctf, but cash i bank in an account in my name. But evidently its not tax free. Its the only way i can see to save for say her wedding, house deposit etc without her spending it on clothes and alcohol at 18.

I think there are investments you can set up to mature at age 21 rather than 18. But, if you've had 18 years to convince your DCs that the money you hand over to them is to be used wisely, you'd have to trust that they won't blow it on cigarettes and gin.

signed. I have complained to my MP about this issue recently.

bump for evening crowd

I don't get it. There is no benefit to children to having 'ISAs' unless their parents are mega rich they won't pay tax anyway.

Older children with child trust funds got free money from the government - how are they hard done by??

I can see it would be awkward for parents with different accounts for different children, but that is the case with any savings account - the same terms and conditions may not be available years later.

Please someone explain if I don't understand - I have not done any research into CTF because my son was born after all the free money (CTF, maternity grant etc) was taken away.

Problems with CTFs:

• you are limited to relatively few providers
• charges are often high
• very limited choice of investments you can pick with these providers
• relatively small number of children with CTF accounts there is no incentive for the fund providers to improve the accounts
• when the funds mature when the child is 18 the money loses it's tax free status

Good things about Junior ISAs:

• they are essentially as versatile as adult ISAs, so
• lower charges
• huge choice of investments
• will be much larger number of account holders, so lots of business means account terms should be more competitive
• when the account matures is stays tax free, just as previous year's adult ISAs stay tax free

I'm not an expert by any means, but is seems very unfair to me that children born in the 9 years (ish) that CTFs were running are not allowed to have the same potential tax-free savings amount that older and younger children have

But what about children born in say 95, who didn't get the CTF cash, and can only now (two years before turning 18) have a JISA? Any parent with savvy would have been trickling cash into an ISA or other tax free savings vehicle for their kids anyway under the parental names, if they didn't have ISAs of their own, so this is really irrelevant.

Still, unless the parents are very wealthy and have a lot of money to save its not an issue, is it? And the poor hard done by kids with a CTF got hundreds of pounds of free money. It seems more unfair that children born one day got hundreds of pounds of savings for free and children born the next day got nothing.

..and also that the kids born before the CTF money came in got nothing.

I have to say I'm with vj32 here. It's astonishing that parents of children who got hundreds of pounds from the Government are now complaining that this has breached their children's human rights.

There are plenty of children's savings/investment schemes available if you can't open a Junior ISA, and you don't even need a specifically children's one, as pretty much any investment can be wrapped in a bare trust which will make it the legal property of the child.

The Junior ISA was basically the Government realising that it had thrown the baby out with the bathwater when it scrapped CTF vouchers. It couldn't just say people could open CTFs with their own money, as CTFs were a Labour idea. Exactly the same as when Labour introduced ISAs to replace the 'Tory' PEPs.

The two are bound to end up under the same regime eventually, just as PEPs and TESSAs came under the ISA regime, but having shot themselves in the foot to start with, the Government in trying to salvage the situation has given the industry almost no time to get the JISA up and running, and integrating the two systems will take a little longer.

If you want to invest for your kids, but control the money then put it in an ISA in your own name and give it to them when they are older.

Pros - up to £10k pa, £5k pa in cash per parent
cons - you have used up our own allowance - therefore you are able to save over £20k pa from after tax income, you are therefore rich enough not to worry or employ expensive people to help.