Where's the money gone? Child trust fund

[Bedbouncer]

Been paying in to a child trust fund for my just turned 14 year old since just after he was born - this was when the government paid £250 to start you off and encourage savings. My parents also started paying into the fund regularly in 2014. My contributions are by direct debit, they set up a standing order. In 2017, the provider of the fund changed. They wrote to us to say that there was no need to change any direct debits or standing orders and they would automatically be transferred to the new account. I took my eye off the ball and haven't kept up with how the account is doing, but noted that my direct debits continued, and rose slightly each year. My parents asked about the account yesterday (whether or not my son is aware of it) which prompted me to remember that they were also paying in. Long story short, their standing order has been taken from their account each month since 2017, but has not appeared in my son's fund, while my direct debit continued as usual. I phoned the provider last week and they stated that the original letter was wrong - direct debits were automatically transferred over, but standing orders were not - and that any standing orders to the original account should have been returned to the sender, since the account was closed - but they weren't! My parent's bank are asking for statements from the account the money has been sent to, which I don't have because -as far as I'm concerned - the account is closed. Where can the money have gone? What's the best way to chase it?

The money would be with the original bank that the CTF was set up with. If they didn't return the funds then they must still have them in a holding account. Is the standing order still set up on their account as that will have the account details on it.

Direct debits are controlled by the company whereas standing orders are controlled by the account holder that sends the money. If the account details of the CTF change then its the person sending the standing order that needs ro change the account details on the payment

You should have been sent annual statements from the CTF provider - do you have the old ones from before the changeover happened? Your parents bank should be tracing the payments as that's where the payments originated from.

Thank you. Yes, the standing order is still set up and we have the sort code and account number. It's a Lloyds account, but I never had direct access to that account, it was managed by the CTF provider - I don't know how to access it.

Its their bank that will have to investigate to trace the payments. If they weren't bounced back to their account the Lloyds have them in a holding/suspense account

I do have the old CTF statements, they don't show any bank account number or sort code, just the CTF number.

This makes sense, but in that case, the CTF provider shouldn't have stated that standing orders would automatically be transferred, should it?

Am pretty sure child trust funds had to transfer over into different types of accounts so maybe something like that happened? You would have got a letter though.

So you have the sort code and account number (from the standing order) and the CTF number which is likely to be the reference (does it match the referenceon the standing order?). Hopefully that's enough details for their bank to trace the payments

That's right - I did get a letter explicitly stating that direct debits and standing orders would be transferred automatically.

I don't know why they would say the standing orders would change too as standing orders are not controlled by them. Unless they redirected them to start with and then stopped redirecting them. Did any of their payments reach the new account?

No, not since the change. They say it was a mistake. It will have cost us though, as the CTF has had a relatively good return rate overall.

Do you still have the letter stating standing orders would be changed over too? I'd make an official complaint if you do.

Yes I have it it says
"If you, a member of the family or a friend are currently contributing to the Plan by direct debit or standing order, there is no need to make any changes. The payment will now be collected by us."

Which is very clear. I probably will complain. Thanks for your advice, you've been very helpful.

Please complain, you should be offered financial compensation IMHO- lost interest if nothing else.

if you complain you will get compensation, Sort of same thing happened to a family member of mine and they worked out based on 12 months of payments how much interest they would have recieved and offered that Plus £100 as an apology