After rumours to the contrary, HM Revenue & Customs will not push back the deadline for investing child trust fund vouchers. Between 17th January and 7th February 2005, the Revenue issued 375,000 vouchers, and the one-year deadline for investing the money has passed.
If a child trust fund account is not opened for the child before the voucher expires, it will not mean that the child will lose the money, but that the choice of where to invest the voucher is taken away. Within a few weeks, the government will notify the person who received the original voucher for the child that a Revenue-allocated stakeholder child trust fund account has been opened for the child with a named provider. Then the parent or guardian contact the provider and apply to become the registered contact for the account. Only when this is completed, can the parent or guardian give instructions on how or where the account should be invested.
Our view
If people have after a whole year still not invested their children's FREE money then they do not deserve to have it. At least they do not lose their money - they just lose choice.