Moving a Child Trust Fund into a Junior ISA

A Child Trust Fund is a tax-free savings account the government created for children born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011. Each eligible child received an initial government deposit of at least £250, and if a parent or guardian did not set one up, the government opened one automatically¹. The scheme closed to new applicants, but the accounts still exist, and many are now being moved into Junior ISAs.

You can transfer a Child Trust Fund into a Junior ISA, but you cannot hold both at once. A child cannot have a Child Trust Fund and a Junior ISA of any type at the same time, so the whole Child Trust Fund has to move across². The transfer itself does not use up any of the child's Junior ISA allowance³.

The average Child Trust Fund is worth approximately £2,200, based on HM Revenue & Customs data published in September 2025¹. Matured accounts claimed or moved into an ISA in 2025 to 2026 had an average market value of £3,596, up from £2,960 for accounts claimed or moved in 2023 to 2024⁴.

What a Child Trust Fund is and why people move it to a Junior ISA

A Child Trust Fund is a tax-free savings account created by the government for children born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, living in the UK and not subject to immigration control¹. Each eligible child received an initial government deposit of at least £250, and the government automatically opened one where a parent or guardian did not¹. The scheme is no longer available to new applicants⁹.

The accounts were designed to run until adulthood. Once the child turns 16 they can take control of the account, but it is not until they turn 18 that they can take out any money¹. That long horizon is one reason families look at moving the money: a Junior ISA offers a wider choice of providers and investments, and the two account types cannot be held side by side.

The transfer route has existed since the government consulted on it at Budget 2013, when the Chancellor announced a consultation on allowing savings to move from a Child Trust Fund to a Junior ISA¹⁰. The consultation page was last updated on 23 December 2013¹⁰. Since then, transfers have become a routine part of opening a Junior ISA for a child who already holds a Child Trust Fund.

A Child Trust Fund can be transferred into a Junior ISA, but not the other way round¹¹. If a child was born between 2002 and 2011, they might have a Child Trust Fund, which can also be transferred into a Junior ISA¹¹.

Junior ISA or Child Trust Fund: how the rules compare

The two accounts look similar from the outside: both are tax-free, both are for children, and both lock the money away until 18. The differences that matter to a family are the choice of provider, the range of investments, and the fact that only one of the two can be held at a time.

The allowance position is the same on both sides: junior ISAs and Child Trust Funds will remain unchanged at £9,000 until April 2031⁷. The Budget 2025 policy statement confirms annual subscription limits will remain at £20,000 for ISAs, £4,000 for Lifetime ISAs and £9,000 for Junior ISAs and Child Trust Funds¹⁴.

If your child holds a Child Trust Fund, you can only open a Junior ISA if you transfer the Child Trust Fund to their Junior ISA as part of the application process¹⁵. The whole Child Trust Fund amount must be transferred into the Junior ISA¹⁶. You will need to transfer the entire Child Trust Fund over³.

Junior ISA allowance: £9,000 a year

The allowance for children's ISAs (Junior ISAs) is currently £9,000 per child⁶. Junior ISAs are tax-free savings accounts that let you invest up to £9,000 a year for a child under 18⁸. The maximum you can pay into a junior ISA for each child in a tax year is £9,000, and it can be split between a cash and a stocks and shares junior ISA¹⁷.

A Child Trust Fund has its own separate annual allowance of up to £9,000¹². That matters because the two allowances are not pooled: while a child holds a Child Trust Fund, the money paid into it uses the Child Trust Fund allowance, not the Junior ISA one.

The transfer itself is treated generously. If you transfer a Child Trust Fund to a Junior ISA, the child will get their full Junior ISA allowance of £9,000 regardless of how much Child Trust Fund allowance has been used¹². The transfer won't count towards your child's £9,000 Junior ISA annual allowance³. When a transfer of a Child Trust Fund to a Junior ISA has been made, the child can use the full Junior ISA subscription allowance for the tax year in which the transfer takes place regardless of any subscriptions made to the Child Trust Fund in that year¹⁸.

In practice, that means a family who has already used the Child Trust Fund allowance in the year of transfer can still pay the full £9,000 into the new Junior ISA in the same tax year. The transfer value itself sits outside the allowance.

How to transfer a Child Trust Fund into a Junior ISA

The process is closer to an ISA transfer than to opening a fresh account, because the old money has to move across rather than being withdrawn and paid back in. You can transfer existing Child Trust Funds into Junior ISAs¹⁹.

1. Choose the Junior ISA provider and open the new account. If your child holds a Child Trust Fund, the transfer is part of the application rather than a separate step¹⁵.
2. Gather the details of the current Child Trust Fund provider and the account number. You will need the details of your current provider and the account number²⁰.
3. Complete the transfer paperwork. Providers typically ask for a Child Trust Fund to Junior ISA transfer authority form, returned by post or email²¹.
4. The new provider arranges the move with the old one. Transferring existing Junior ISAs or Child Trust Funds is handled through the receiving provider's transfer process²².

Some providers accept the transfer as a cash lump sum only. With one investment platform, you can either transfer all of your investments and cash held at your current provider or choose to sell your holdings and transfer a cash lump sum, which is the only option for a Child Trust Fund²³. That is worth knowing before you start, because it means the investments inside the Child Trust Fund are sold and the proceeds reinvested in the new Junior ISA.

Not every provider takes Child Trust Fund transfers. Where they do, the wording is usually explicit: Child Trust Fund transfers to Junior ISAs are accepted²⁴. You can transfer an existing Child Trust Fund to a Junior ISA²⁵. You can transfer existing Child Trust Funds into Junior ISAs¹⁹. Transferring existing Junior ISAs or Child Trust Funds is easy with a transfer tracker²⁶. You can transfer Junior ISAs and Child Trust Funds¹⁹.

Who controls the account at 16 and at 18

Control of a Junior ISA passes in two stages. A parent or guardian manages a Junior ISA for a child while they're under 16. Once the child reaches 16, they can choose to manage their own account⁸. A parent or guardian can manage this ISA for a child while they're under 16; once the child reaches 16, they can manage it online after registering with a signed form². The young person can apply to manage their own account when they become 16¹⁶.

The same split applies to Child Trust Funds. Once you turn 16, you can take control of the account, but it's not until you turn 18 that you can take out any money¹. The Child Trust Funds Act states that if the child is 16 or over and has elected to manage the child trust fund, the child has the authority to manage it²⁷.

At 18, the account changes character. Junior ISAs automatically turn into an adult ISA when the child turns 18¹³. The child becomes the account holder and the parent can no longer access the account²⁸. Once your child reaches 18, the account will automatically become an adult ISA and they will be able to access the money in it²⁹. Once the child turns 18, the Junior Isa account will be changed to an adult Isa, and the individual can decide on what they want to do with the money³⁰. Once the child turns 18, the funds transfer to them³¹.

Some providers move the money into one of their own adult accounts unless told otherwise. On the child's 18th birthday, the Junior ISA ends and the money is automatically transferred into an adult cash ISA from NS&I, with notice about a month before². Money belongs to the child and can only be accessed when they turn 18, except in exceptional circumstances³².

Finding a lost Child Trust Fund

Many Child Trust Funds have been forgotten. HMRC data shows over 827,000 matured Child Trust Funds worth £2,310 on average are yet to be claimed³⁴. HMRC issued an alert as it aimed to track down the owners of unclaimed matured Child Trust Fund accounts³⁵. A Child Trust Fund Taskforce was established, bringing together government and industry to help young people access savings and reduce unclaimed accounts³⁵.

The accounts are easy to lose track of because they were often opened automatically. If your parent or guardian did not set one up for you, the government automatically opened one¹. Providers changed hands, paperwork was filed and forgotten, and the child may never have known the account existed.

If you are trying to trace one, the starting point is the provider named on any old statements, followed by HMRC's tracing service for Child Trust Funds. Our guide to finding a lost Child Trust Fund sets out the steps, and the wider page on Child Trust Funds covers what happens at 18 and how to claim.

Once a fund is found and the child is still under 18, it can be moved into a Junior ISA. After your child turns 18, you can no longer transfer their CTF to a Junior ISA. However, they can transfer it to a Stocks and shares ISA or Lifetime ISA instead³⁶. An instruction can only be accepted from the account holder (the child as was) and the matured CTF can be transferred to any ISA type with any other ISA manager or the CTF provider if they offer ISAs³⁷. You can transfer a Child Trust Fund to a Junior ISA, and if they're soon turning 18 or their trust fund has matured, you can transfer it to an adult account³⁸.