The Labour government has recently introduced the Child Trust Fund. This pays all new babies a £250 or £500 capital endowment from government. This is locked into a special account until the child’s 18th birthday. Parents are key to the success of this policy as they will make many of the key decisions about savings and investment. Little is known, however, about what new parents think of this policy. This paper addresses this by providing original evidence on what parents think of the basic features of this policy; whether the Child Trust Fund will make them more likely to save; attitudes towards the responsible use of the Child Trust Fund; and whether parents would prefer money spent on different forms of assistance rather than the Child Trust Fund.
Project: Global Assets Project
Citation
Prabhakar, R. (2006). Attitudes towards the Child Trust Fund: What do parents think? (CSD Working Paper No. 06-10). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development.