Around 827,000 young adults have a matured Child Trust Fund account waiting to be claimed, which could be worth an average of £2,310, according to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
HMRC said almost 3 million accounts held by 18 to 24 year-olds have been claimed or transferred into an Individual Savings Account since September 2020.
It is encouraging young people who do not know where their savings are to find them using the GOV.UK locator tool, which is free to use.
Child Trust Funds are long-term, tax-free savings accounts set up for children born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, with an initial government deposit of at least £250.
Young people can take control of their account at 16. When the account matures at 18, they can withdraw the money to spend, leave it where it is or re-invest it.
Young people, or their parents or guardians, who know who their Child Trust Fund provider is can contact them directly. Otherwise, they can use the online locator tool, which almost 500,000 young people used to find their Child Trust Fund in the nine months to August this year.
HMRC said it takes about 5 minutes to submit a request through the online tool, using the young person’s National Insurance number and date of birth, and for most people less than 3 weeks to hear back. National Insurance numbers can be downloaded from the HMRC app.
A Child Trust Fund Taskforce has been established to bring together government and industry to help more young people access the savings that belong to them and to reduce the number of unclaimed accounts. It is led by Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby.
Lucy Rigby said: “The oldest matured accounts are now more than six years old and some young people may not know they have savings waiting for them. The Taskforce has been set up to help those young people who don’t know about their savings.”
Anna, 18, from London, who has already claimed her Child Trust Fund, said: “It was really straightforward. Nationwide kept me updated the whole way through and explained how to access the money.”
The savings accounts are not held by the government but by banks, building societies and other savings providers.
The Child Trust Fund scheme closed in January 2011 and was replaced with Junior Individual Savings Accounts. The latest figures were released in the Annual Savings Statistics on 16 September 2026 and include figures up to April 2026.
