How to Find a Lost Child Trust Fund for Free
If you have a child who was born between September 2002 and January 2011, there’s a chance they have money sitting in a Child Trust Fund that you’ve completely forgotten about.
I say that without judgement because this is exactly what happened with us.
When Ben was younger, I knew about Child Trust Funds, but as the years passed it wasn’t something I thought about very often. Eventually I decided we really ought to find out where his account was and what had happened to it.
I expected the process to be considerably more complicated than it actually was.
We filled in the details through the government service and, in our case, heard back in about a week with information about the provider holding Ben’s account. It wasn’t a life-changing fortune, but it was money that belonged to him and could now form part of his savings for the future.
With so many Child Trust Funds still unclaimed, it’s definitely worth checking whether you or your child has one, particularly because you can find the account yourself for free.
Did you know? Around 760,000 Child Trust Funds worth more than £1.5 billion are still unclaimed, according to figures reported as the FCA announced a review of providers in September 2026.
What is a Child Trust Fund?
Child Trust Funds were long-term tax-free savings accounts created for children born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011.
The government made payments into the accounts and parents, relatives and other people could add money too. Depending on the type of account, the money could then earn interest or be invested as the child grew up.
The scheme eventually closed to new accounts and was replaced by Junior ISAs, but the existing Child Trust Funds didn’t disappear. That’s particularly important if you don’t remember opening one.
Where a parent or guardian didn’t open a Child Trust Fund for an eligible child, HMRC could arrange for an account to be opened on their behalf. This means there are young adults today who may have a Child Trust Fund even though neither they nor their parents know which company holds it.
The money belongs to the young person, and once they turn 18 they can decide what to do with it.
Why are so many Child Trust Funds still unclaimed?
This surprised me when I first started looking into it, although the more you think about it, the easier it is to understand.
We’re talking about accounts that were opened many years ago. Families have moved house, paperwork has disappeared, providers have changed and children who were babies when the accounts were created are now adults dealing with their own finances.
In some cases the government opened the account rather than the parents, so a family may never have had much involvement with it in the first place.
There are also young adults who aren’t in contact with their parents or don’t have access to old family paperwork.
None of that means the money has disappeared.
If you’re within the right age range and have no idea whether you have a Child Trust Fund, it’s worth checking rather than assuming you don’t.
How we found Ben’s Child Trust Fund
Finding Ben’s account was much easier than I’d imagined.
The government has a free Child Trust Fund tracing service through HMRC. If you’re 16 or over you can use it to find your own account, while a parent or guardian can look for an account belonging to a child under 18.
You’ll need to provide information so HMRC can identify the account. If you’re looking for your own Child Trust Fund, this includes your National Insurance number.
We completed the process online and waited for HMRC to identify the provider.
For us, it took around a week.
That doesn’t mean everyone will hear back that quickly, so don’t panic if yours takes longer, but I remember being pleasantly surprised by how straightforward it was. I’d built it up in my head as one of those tedious financial jobs involving endless phone calls and paperwork, when in reality the hardest part was probably getting around to doing it.
Once HMRC tells you which provider has the account, you contact that provider directly about accessing or managing it.
Don’t pay someone to find it for you
There are companies offering to trace Child Trust Funds on behalf of young people, sometimes in return for a fee or a proportion of the money they find.
You don’t need them.
HMRC provides the official tracing service for free, so I’d always start there rather than handing over part of your Child Trust Fund to somebody for doing something you can do yourself.
If you’ve received an email, social media advert or message promising to recover a forgotten Child Trust Fund, don’t simply follow the link and enter personal information either. Go directly to GOV.UK and use the official service.
You’re going to be providing information such as names, dates of birth and potentially National Insurance details during this process, so it’s worth making sure you’re actually dealing with HMRC.
What happens to a Child Trust Fund at 16?
Turning 16 doesn’t mean you can take the money out, but it does give the young person more control over the account.
From 16, they can take over responsibility for managing their Child Trust Fund themselves if they want to. Alternatively, the existing registered contact can continue managing it until the young person turns 18.
The important distinction is that managing the account and accessing the money aren’t the same thing. The money still belongs to the young person and, under normal circumstances, can’t be withdrawn until their 18th birthday.
What happens when you turn 18?
On the young person’s 18th birthday, their Child Trust Fund matures and they take ownership of it. They can then withdraw the money or transfer it into an adult ISA.
If they don’t do anything immediately, the money doesn’t vanish and the provider doesn’t get to keep it. It remains protected until the young person decides what they want to do.
That means somebody who turned 18 a few years ago and completely forgot about their Child Trust Fund can still track it down. I’d actually be quite cautious about automatically withdrawing it simply because you can.
For an 18-year-old, discovering what feels like an unexpected lump of money can make spending it immediately extremely tempting. Depending on how much is there and what they need the money for, it may be worth looking at savings accounts or ISAs and thinking about what they want the money to achieve.
Ben didn’t need to immediately spend the money in his account, so for us it made more sense to think of it as part of his longer-term savings rather than an unexpected shopping budget.
Another family may be in a completely different position. The important thing is that once they’re 18, it’s their money and their decision.
Can you still pay into a Child Trust Fund?
If the young person is still under 18 and the account hasn’t matured, money can still be added to an existing Child Trust Fund.
The current annual contribution limit is £9,000, although this could change in future tax years, so I’d check the current government guidance before making a large contribution.
There isn’t any tax to pay on income or profits generated within the Child Trust Fund.
You can also potentially transfer an existing Child Trust Fund to a Junior ISA before the child turns 18. You can’t keep both at the same time, though, so transferring a Child Trust Fund to a Junior ISA involves transferring the whole account and closing the CTF.
Whether that’s worthwhile will depend on things such as charges, interest rates, investment options and what the existing account offers.
I wouldn’t move it simply because Junior ISA sounds newer. Compare what you’ve actually got first.
What if my parents never paid anything into it?
You could still have money waiting for you.
The original government contribution wasn’t dependent on your parents continuing to save into the account, so don’t assume that there’s nothing there because your family didn’t add to it.
The eventual value will depend on what went into the account, the type of Child Trust Fund you had, how it performed and any charges that applied.
That’s another reason I wouldn’t promise people a particular amount.
You might find a useful lump sum, or it could be considerably smaller than somebody else’s. Either way, it’s your money and worth finding.
What if I’ve lost all the paperwork?
That’s exactly the sort of situation the HMRC tracing service is there for.
You don’t need to know the name of the provider before you start searching because finding the provider is the whole point.
This is particularly useful if your family has moved house since the account was opened, the original letters have disappeared or you simply have no idea what happened to it.
If you’re an eligible young adult, I’d check even if your parents can’t remember anything about your account.
What if the young person can’t manage the money themselves?
There’s an additional complication for some families when a Child Trust Fund matures at 18.
If the young person doesn’t have the mental capacity to manage the account themselves, a parent doesn’t automatically gain the right to access the money simply because they’ve always managed their child’s finances.
In England and Wales, someone may need to apply to the Court of Protection for the appropriate authority to manage the matured account on the young person’s behalf.
This is something I’d look into well before their 18th birthday if you think it could apply to your family, rather than waiting until the Child Trust Fund has matured and then discovering you can’t access it.
The government has specific guidance about this, and individual circumstances can be complicated, so I’d use that rather than relying on general advice from other parents online.
What if the person with the Child Trust Fund has died?
The money doesn’t simply disappear, but what happens to it becomes part of dealing with the person’s estate and the provider will need to follow the appropriate process.
If you’re dealing with a Child Trust Fund belonging to somebody who has died, contact the provider once you’ve identified the account and ask what evidence they need from the personal representatives of the estate.
That’s safer than assuming the money automatically goes to a particular relative because family circumstances and inheritance arrangements can differ.
Is it really worth checking?
Absolutely.
It took us very little time to start the search for Ben’s Child Trust Fund, and within around a week we knew where his account was.
For me, that’s the biggest reason for writing about our experience. There are jobs we put off because they sound complicated, particularly when they involve HMRC, old financial accounts and paperwork we probably haven’t seen for fifteen years.
This turned out not to be one of them.
If you were born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, or you’re the parent or guardian of someone who was, and nobody knows what happened to their Child Trust Fund, I’d spend a few minutes checking.
Go directly through the official GOV.UK service, don’t pay a company to trace it for you, and see what’s there.
It might not be a fortune.
Then again, finding money you didn’t realise you had isn’t a bad return for filling in a form.
