Junior ISAs and Child Trust Funds
SCOPE OF THIS CHAPTER
Young people who have been in care for 12 months consecutively are entitled to a Junior ISA and/ or a Child Trust Fund. Please review the information and complete the required forms to ensure that young people can receive the maximum amount that they are entitled to.
This guidance was added to the procedures in April 2020.
Contents
- Eligibility
- Identifying Children and Young People who are Eligible for Contributions
- Process for Adding Funds
1. Eligibility
Young people who have been in care for 12 months consecutively are eligible for a Junior ISA through the regular data submission to The Share Foundation (TSF). This enables a Junior ISA to be set up. This can take up to 6 weeks, so please be aware of this timescale before instructing donations to be made for a new YP submitted to TSF.
2. Identifying Children and Young People who are Eligible for Contributions
Following a YP being in care consecutively for at least 12 months, the LA should identify the YP through the regular data submission to TSF. TSF would then obtain the Responsible Adult (RA) status from the LA. Where there is a RA on the account, TSF will take no further action. Where there is no RA, TSF will request account information from the HMRC and liaise with the CTF provider to take control of the account. There is a timescale to this (approximately 6 weeks), so please be aware of this, before instructing contributions to be made. When responsibility for the account is with TSF, the following applies when making contributions:
- Where there is a RA for a CTF account, TSF cannot administer contributions to the account. Therefore before any donations are submitted, the LA needs to check this status prior to instructing a donor to make contributions. If TSF do receive contributions and there is a RA on the account, the contribution will be refunded to the donor.
- If there is no RA on the account, TSF can administer contributions and the process will be as per the Junior ISA points of a) to f) above. For point b), with regard to references on the contribution form, for a CTF account, if the 'TSF reference' is not provided, for any reason, a donor can use the YP's name, date of birth and National Insurance (NI) number.
3. Process for Adding Funds
When the account is set up for a new YP, or where there is already an existing account, the following applies when making donations:
- To make a donation to a YP's account, the donor would need to download and complete a contribution form from The Share Foundation (TSF) website.
Please click here to download a copy now.
This form has been updated so please discard any previous versions and use this latest version.
PLEASE NOTE THAT SHARE FOUNDATION REQUIRE A CONTRIBUTION FORM FOR EACH DONATION AND IF THIS IS NOT RECEIVED, IT WILL PROBABLY BE NECESSARY FOR US TO REFUND THE DONATION.
Bank details and email/postal information is on the Contribution Form; - If the contribution is a one-off, the donor will indicate this on the form. Ideally, they will obtain the 'TSF reference' from the LA – this is always quoted on the quarterly valuation reports we send to you. The use of the TSF reference removes any queries regarding the intended recipient of the funds. Where the TSF reference is not provided, the date of birth can be used on the form, but as these details are not unique (could have the same name and date of birth for other YP), the TSF reference is the preference. All contributions to Junior ISAs and Child Trust Funds are classed by the HMRC as gifts to The Child and cannot be withdrawn from the account until the child reaches 18 years old. The importance of this is if money goes into the wrong account, it cannot be withdrawn;
- The contribution can be sent to us by cheque (with the form), or an online donation can be made (bank details are on the form). If they do the latter, we still require a contribution form (posted or emailed) indicating that this was the method of payment, so that we can 'tie up' the online payment with the contribution form. The online reference should be the 'TSF reference' number;
- If the contribution is going to be a regular payment, i.e. weekly/monthly, then they would need to send a contribution form, with an original signature, completed to this effect. They provide us with the bank details on the form and we can send this on to their bank for setting up a standing order. Alternatively, they can arrange the standing order directly with their bank via online banking, but must still send us the form to indicate that they have done this, so that again we can 'tie up' the form with the online payments. They only need to complete and send one contribution form for a regular payment, which will support all future contributions under that standing order. Again, for online payments, the 'TSF' number should be used as the payment reference;
- The regular payments are by standing order (and not Direct Debit) so the donor is in control of these payments. It will be their responsibility to cancel the standing order with their bank when they no longer want to make the contribution, or when a YP turns 18 and we can no longer administer the donation;
- When a YP leaves care or turns 18, TSF can no longer administer contributions. Therefore, should any donations need to be made knowing this is going to happen, the donor would need to send this to us in plenty of time. Should a contribution be received less than two weeks before the beneficiary's 18th birthday, then the contribution may have to be refunded.