Child Trust Funds Children with Learning Disabilities
2020-12-08
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Partial Answer
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Context
Parents face challenges accessing their children's child trust funds when they reach adulthood, especially if the adult has a learning disability.
What steps his Department is taking to improve access to child trust funds for parents of young adults with learning disabilities?
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.
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Assessment & feedback
Specific timeline for streamlining applications to Court of Protection, details on fee reduction mechanism
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
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Context
Around 200,000 disabled children could be affected in the coming eight years by inability to access Government-backed child trust fund.
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.
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.
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Assessment & feedback
Specific actions or timeline for reducing burden on applications to Court of Protection
Response accuracy