Money expert Martin Lewis is urging people who are aged under 22 to claim a free £2,212 from the government – with no strings attached.
Martin is today urging people to claim an average of £2,212 that’s sitting in Child Trust Funds for those aged 22 and under which many people simply don’t realise is sitting in an account with their name on it.
But recently a spate of companies have sprung up urging people to use their ‘services’ to claim the money in exchange for a cut of the savings, and Martin is warning that this is a complete waste of money because you can claim it yourself for free with the same information.
Martin explained that for a time, the government automatically set up Child Trust Funds for babies, and put between £250 and £500 in as a starting amount.
Many people never touched the money and it sat there gaining interest for years and now Martin is telling people to go get the cash they’re owed.
Martin said: “This is a warning for anyone aged under 22. You may have two grand in a Child Trust Fund that you don’t know about and you can get the money out for free.
“I’ve started to see adverts and videos on social media from firms trying to charge you to access your own money or trying to get a cut of your savings to give you your money.
“Don’t touch them, don’t sniff them, don’t smell them don’t go near them.
“This is easy to do yourself.
“If you’re aged between 13 and 22, specifically September 1 2002 to January 2nd, 2011, when you were born you would have had a Child Trust Fund which is effectively a tax free saving or investment account.
“Now your parents could put money in it but everyone was given a sum by the state to start it off, normally £250 but in some cases £500.
“You can take the money out of your Child Trust Fund, you can take the money out when you’re aged 18 which many of you now are.
“And in fact the stats show 670,000 people aged between 18 and 22 who have one of these have not touched the money and many don’t know about it.
“The average amount in there? £2,212.”
To trace and claim the Child Trust Fund, there is a free tool on gov.uk searching Child Trust Fund with your National Insurance Number. It will reply within three weeks and tell you which provider your money is with and then you can contact them.
Of course, if you already know who it’s with, you can go straight to them, the gov tool is just to trace lost or forgotten trust funds.
So, why am I warning you about this?
“We’ve started to see third party claims firms especially on Tiktok trying to get you to pay £300 or 25 percent of the value of your savings, for doing nothing, for doing what you can already do.
“There is no, zero, zip added value to using their services plus you have to give them the same information you have to give gov.uk anyway.”
