Political opinion with John Milne MP: Key to Locked Child Trust Funds may be at hand

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One of the first things I did as a new MP was to take up the cause of Locked Child Trust Funds. This is a longstanding campaign led by local constituent Andrew Turner. Like 80,000 other families, the Turners were shocked to discover that their son would not be able to benefit from his own savings because of his disability.

Horsham MP, John Milne, writes on his campaign on access to locked Child Trust Funds for young people with disabilities. | John Milne MP

placeholder image — Horsham MP, John Milne, writes on his campaign on access to locked Child Trust Funds for young people with disabilities. | John Milne MP

Child Trust Funds were a Blair-era concept in which all children were given a free sum of money to be kept in a trust fund till their 18th birthday. In many cases, family members topped up the savings, so some of the accounts are considerable.

What they forgot to anticipate was that many of those children would grow up with a disability and be unable to manage their financial affairs. Court of Protection rules are tight, and for good reason - but for most families this means their savings remain totally unreachable.

Andrew Turner has been obliged to lobby no less than 11 different Justice Secretaries over 6 years. This relentless churn of Ministers is extremely damaging to good government. However, the latest minister, Jake Richards, has convinced me he really wants to find a solution.

We’re pushing for this on every front. We’ve held Westminster Hall debates. We’ve put ministers on the spot at question time. My colleague, Jess Brown-Fuller, got a positive response from Jake Richards a few weeks ago, and Andy Burnham replied favourably to a Prime Minister’s Question. I continue to meet with ministers privately.

The challenge is to persuade government lawyers that we can solve this without compromising important children’s rights maintained by the Court of Protection. An effective solution might need primary legislation. This could come through my own 10 Minute Rule Bill, which is going through Parliament right now. Not many backbenchers bills get to become law, but I am urging the government to support my bill.

Simultaneously, my Liberal Democrat colleague Baroness Kramer has brought a child trust fund amendment to the Financial Services Bill. I will potentially re-table this amendment in the Commons, depending on how negotiations with government ministers go this week.

I’ve yet to find a single MP who doesn’t agree with the morality of this issue. Denying families a way to support their disabled children with their own children’s money is disgraceful. I appreciate the legal challenges, but a solution must be found.