Unclaimed Child Trust Funds hit £1.9 billion as Junior ISAs grow

It was another incredibly strong year for the Junior ISA, with more parents opening accounts and more money being paid in. What’s even more positive is that a growing number of them are coming round to the idea of investing this money, rather than saving it.

The average new subscription in the 2024/25 tax year was £1,570, which was a 17% increase compared to the year before. Since the Junior ISA was launched in November 2011, cash has overwhelmingly dominated the landscape, as parents struggled to consider taking investment risk for both themselves and their children.

Now 62% is going into the investment version. Over the long term investments have far more of an opportunity to grow than the cash equivalent – though it marks a small drop compared with 64% in 2023/24. A Junior ISA opened soon after birth would run for nearly 18 years before being converted into an adult version, which means parents can make the most of that time horizon to build up a pot for their kids.

Analysis by AJ Bell showed that children born in February 2008 who had £1,000 invested in a global tracker fund in a Child Trust Funds (CTF) since birth would have a generated a pot worth £5,690 by the age of 18*. If they’d saved it for 18 years at a rate of 4%, they’d have £2,050. However, with almost 40% of the subscriptions to Junior ISAs still going to the cash version of the accounts, there’s clearly room for more parents to consider investing for their children.

*Source: FE Analytics. MSCI ACWI Index used as a proxy for global tracker fund.

Child Trust Funds – a missed opportunity?

The figures lay bare just what a missed opportunity Child Trust Funds have become. The government went to all the expense of universally funding these accounts, just for billions of pounds to sit untouched, while the owner of the money probably has no idea they have a nest egg. There are now 826,000 accounts that have matured as the child has reached 18 and yet have not been claimed, with the total value growing by another £409 million since last year to £1.91 billion in April 2026.

Well over half of the money in these accounts – £1.25 billion – matured over a year ago. On top of this, around 34,000 unclaimed accounts had a balance of £10,000 or more, with 380,000 pots containing over £1,000.

It isn’t a complete surprise. Of the total 6.3 million accounts that have ever been opened, 1.8 million were opened by HMRC, so there’s a decent chance parents never knew where the money went. Even if they got around to opening an account, over the years plenty of them will have moved house and changed their contact details, without remembering to get in touch with the CTF provider and update it. It means these 18-year-olds or their parents don’t realise they have this money, or don’t know where to find it.

If you were born, or if you have a child who was born, between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, there could be a CTF waiting to be found. You can track it down through the tool on the government website. You need to sign in through the government gateway and then complete a form and they’ll let you know where the money is, so you can get in touch and claim it.

If you’re doing this for a child under 18, once you’ve found it, it’s worth considering a switch to a Junior ISA. Both accounts have the same tax benefits and the same annual limit. In both cases the money is locked away until the child is 18, at which point it belongs entirely to them.