JISA

[user593]

I am thinking of contributing a lot more than I had been to my children’s JISAs, with a view to having at least enough money to pay their university tuition (they’re 2 and 5, so a long way off yet!). I hope by the time they go to university (if they choose to) we’d be able to fund their tuition, but this is a backup if not. If they have a significant amount of savings in their JISA (£40,000+ each) would this currently affect their ability to get student loans, or cause them any other detriment?

I’m not sure of the answer to your question, but I’d be wary that the JISA belongs to your child, and it will be theirs at 18. You will have no say over what they spend it on. As your kids are so young, you have no idea how responsible they’ll be as they grow. I’d consider putting the larger sums in as ISA, with a smaller amount in a JISA. Then you have control to decide nearer the time how best to support them. Unless you already max out your ISAs each year, in which case you may not be as worried about the JISAs being wasted.

We do max out our ISAs each year, but I thought one way to get them to use the JISA sensibly would be to tell them they need to pay their way at university (if we’re worried they may be frivolous). If we’re not worried, we could potentially pay for university so they can keep their JISA/ISA for a house deposit or travel. It’s a tricky one, but but tax free growth seems too good an opportunity to pass up.

its commendable that you want to save enough for tuition but as university costs go off your income your child might want to take out a loan and use any junior isa savings for a car, future house deposit. You can direct your child but can’t control it. 40k seems a large sum to risk on a 18 year old.

@Lovingbooks That is helpful if it’s based on our income. I was worried having cash savings might go against them. We have a high household income at the moment by virtue of DP but he will retire before the DCs start university which is one reason I’d like to put this money aside now, so we can at least tick off university fees (or if not that, house deposits). We’re mortgage free and have topped up our own ISAs and pensions. I agree it’s a bit of a risk but hopefully we can steer them in the right direction.

The only ‘problem’ could be if they’re unemployed they wouldn’t be able to claim job seekers /universal credit as they’d be expected to live off the savings in their name

In that case, putting into the JISAs seems like the best way to get your tax efficiency 😊

I was supposed to reply to you OP, not myself 🤣