Thousands of young people missing out on money they don't know about

Read the original at BBC News ↗
Cite

Evans, F. (2026, August 6). Thousands of young people missing out on money they don't know about. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1d1z376k4ko?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

BBC News · collected 2026-08-06 · by Felicity Evans

Quick Summary

Kae Tapscott from Tredegar in Blaenau Gwent discovered he had £4,000 waiting for him in a Child Trust Fund (CTF) after his social worker mentioned it. Over three quarters of a million CTFs remain unclaimed, with an average value of approximately £2,200 each, leaving around £83m unclaimed in Wales alone. The UK government set up these accounts for every child born between 2002 and 2011, but many young people are unaware they exist or how to access them. The main reason for the unclaimed funds is that some young people have never been informed about their CTFs.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-08-21, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Thousands of young people in the UK are missing out on an average of £2,200 each, thanks to a government scheme called the Child Trust Fund (CTF) that was set up for every child born between September 1, 2002 and January 2, 2011. Despite being eligible, over 750,000 accounts remain unclaimed, with many young people unaware of their existence or how to access them. Kae Tapscott, a student from Tredegar in Blaenau Gwent, was one such person who only discovered his £4,000 account when his social worker mentioned it just before he turned 18. Kae urges others to check if they are owed money by using the Share Foundation's free CTF finder service on gov.uk or The Share Foundation's website.

Written for “Inheritance Payments Discovered” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Inheritance Payments Discovered
Economy/Business · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
24
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
21%
5 of 24 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
69/100
BBC News's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Economy/Business
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-08-06 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

BBC News · 3553 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Felicity Evans
2 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 - Published Welsh councils will receive £4.8 million to provide "emergency food aid" and other support for people struggling due to cost of living pressures.
🔮 The amount of money in each account will vary, but on average it's more than £2,000.
Also by Felicity Evans
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

Topics

Blaenau Gwent The Share Foundation Tredegar Welsh the Child Trust Fund

Subjects

Kae PERSON · 3× The Share Foundation ORG · 3× Welsh NORP · 2× the Child Trust Fund ORG · 2× Blaenau Gwent GPE · 1× CTF ORG · 1× Coleg Gwent ORG · 1× ISA ORG · 1× Kae Tapscott PERSON · 1× Tredegar GPE · 1×

Narrative

About 6.3 million CTFs were created for children born in the UK between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 More than 750,000 matured accounts remain unclaimed, with an average value of about £2,200 The amount of money in each CTF will vary A young person can take control of their account when they reach 16, but they cannot access the money until they are 18 Never pay anyone money to help you find your CTF You can conduct a free search for your CTF via gov.uk, external or The Share Foundation, external Gavin Oldham, chair of the Share Foundation, said the main reason for accounts going unclaimed is that some young people have simply never been told about it.
framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-08-06
🔮 The amount of money in each account will vary, but on average it's more than £2,000.

Claims (24 extracted, 5 hedged)

- Published Kae Tapscott had no idea he had £4,000 waiting for him until his social worker mentioned it just before he turned 18. asserted
he → publish → 18
Kae, from Tredegar in Blaenau Gwent, had never even heard of the Child Trust Fund (CTF) - and he's not the only one. asserted
he → hear → Fund
They were set up for every child born in the UK between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 with government money, but more than three quarters of a million accessible accounts are unclaimed. asserted
accounts → set → money
The amount of money in each account will vary, but on average it's more than £2,000. asserted
it → vary → account
Kae, who wants to be an actor and is studying performing arts at Coleg Gwent, is urging other young people to check what they may be owed. uncertain
they → want → what
"Don't just leave it and do nothing because you might not receive anything if you don't look," he said. uncertain
he → leave → anything
Kae said he had invested his money in an ISA to save for a house in future. asserted
he → say → future
But at first he struggled to find out the details of his CTF because they can be held by a variety of different providers, and in the end used the Share Foundation's free CTF finder. asserted
they → struggle → finder
"I thought i'd get it automatically but I didn't hear anything," he said. asserted
he → think → anything
"I thought the government would give it to me but I actually had to get it by myself." asserted
I → think → myself
An estimated £83m is lying unclaimed in Wales alone according to The Share Foundation, a charity that runs accounts for young people in care on behalf of the UK government. uncertain
that → estimate → government
Most CTFs were set up by the child's parents with a voucher worth £250, or £500 in the case of low-income families, from the UK government. asserted
CTFs → set → government
An additional government payment was made when the child reached the age of seven and family members could also top them up. uncertain
members → make → them
In some cases the Welsh government also made a small payment to the funds of Welsh children. asserted
government → make → children
Where parents or guardians didn't set them up, the CTFs were created by the UK government on the child's behalf. asserted
CTFs → set → behalf
Can I claim the Child Trust Fund? uncertain
I → claim → Fund
About 6.3 million CTFs were created for children born in the UK between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 More than 750,000 matured accounts remain unclaimed, with an average value of about £2,200 The amount of money in each CTF will vary A young person can take control of their account when they reach 16, but they cannot access the money until they are 18 Never pay anyone money to help you find your CTF You can conduct a free search for your CTF via gov.uk, external or The Share Foundation, external Gavin Oldham, chair of the Share Foundation, said the main reason for accounts going unclaimed is that some young people have simply never been told about it. asserted
people → create → it
He said the purpose was to give a young person "some resources for when they became an adult so that it would actually give them a good start". asserted
it → say → start
Oldham wants to see the UK government implement an automatic release scheme for young people whose CTFs were created by the government because they are the group most likely to be unaware of their existence. " asserted
they → want → existence
If they haven't found it by the time they're 21, the money should be released through payroll, benefits or student loan routes," he said. asserted
he → find → routes
The UK government said savings belonged to account holders and were held by private sector providers. asserted
savings → say → providers
"The government does not have the authority to access or transfer these funds," it said. asserted
it → have → funds
"The government is committed to reuniting young people with their CTFs. asserted
government → commit → CTFs
"HMRC works with providers, industry representatives and others to raise awareness and help individuals trace their accounts, including through targeted communications and a free GOV.UK tracing service." asserted
individuals → work → communications
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