Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Child Trust Funds: Children with Learning Disabilities

Tuesday 8 December 2020 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Ministerial Department is reviewing processes to improve access to child trust funds for young adults with learning disabilities.
  • Fees can be waived in appropriate cases to help parents access their children's trust funds.
  • Work is ongoing to ensure that the rights of individuals are maintained while reducing fuss and expense for parents.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Stephen Crabb Con
NHS Children & Families
Context

Parents face challenges accessing their children's child trust funds when they reach adulthood, especially if the adult has a learning disability.

Question

What steps his Department is taking to improve access to child trust funds for parents of young adults with learning disabilities?

Answer from Alex Chalk

As a young person turns 18, the contents of their child trust fund belong to them and them alone, whether or not they have a learning disability. Fees can now be waived in appropriate cases and we have set up a working group to review the process with the judiciary to streamline it while maintaining vital safeguards.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Specific timeline for streamlining applications to Court of Protection, details on fee reduction mechanism

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Q2 Stephen Crabb Con
Children & Families
Context

Around 200,000 disabled children could be affected in the coming eight years by inability to access Government-backed child trust fund.

Question

I thank the Minister for that answer, the work that he is doing on this issue and the letter he wrote to me this week about my constituents who are affected. As he knows, around 200,000 disabled children could be affected by this in the coming eight years, unable to access their Government-backed child trust fund, so I urge him to continue the good work that he is doing and to really make sure that applications to the Court of Protection are the least onerous possible for the parents of these disabled children.

Answer from Alex Chalk

I thank my right hon. Friend for raising that issue on behalf of his constituents. We have a duty to make sure that the rights of those individuals are maintained, but it is also important that loving parents can access their children's money with minimum fuss and expense.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Specific actions or timeline for reducing burden on applications to Court of Protection

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