It’s time to get angry about Child Trust Funds

If you're already saving for your child with an older-style Child Trust Fund, you're barred from upgrading to a cheaper Jisa. That is an outrage, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

I don't remember feeling particularly grateful when my children got Child Trust Funds (CTFs). I was irritated at the idea of being bribed by Gordon Brown with my own money. I didn't like doing the administration needed to ensure the £250 each was invested in reasonable funds. And I knew perfectly well that, just like most unaffordable and complicated minor vote grabbers, it wouldn't end up being much of a long-term policy.

So it was no surprise to find one of George Osborne's first fiddles was to abolish them. What was a surprise was to find that he replaced them with a good alternative (the Junior Isa, or Jisa), but then barred access to this for anyone who already had a CTF.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.