I'm going to help you take control of your money

Junior ISA

You have a savings/investment account called a Junior ISA, and from age 18 you can access the money or choose to keep it invested

The Junior ISA is a long-term tax-free savings/investment account which can be set up for children and young people in the UK who do not have a Child Trust Fund. All children in care continuously for at least one year & without a Child Trust Fund have their own individual account set up under Government arrangements, opened by The Share Foundation with an initial payment from the Government.

The key purpose of the account is to establish a savings habit among children and young people in care : providing a cushion of financial assets as they embark on adult life, and enabling them to be confident in the management of their finances.

If you've been in care continuously for more than one year and do not have a Child Trust Fund, you will almost certainly have a Junior ISA. It's a pot of money put into an account for you personally by the government via The Share Foundation.

What it's worth now depends on three things:

• The £200 put in by the Government;
• Whether anyone else put money in, perhaps your local authority, or a member of your family;
• How much it's grown in value.

The money is in an individual account held safely for you with a Junior ISA provider and The Share Foundation, a registered charity appointed by the Department for Education, has been overseeing it for you as 'registered contact'.

The accounts have been invested in the stock market, and may have grown in value. 

The money is yours, and now is the time to start preparing to control the account yourself. The money can be withdrawn when you reach 18, or you can leave it to grow in value. But you do need to act now.

When you then contact your account provider, they'll need to check your identification to make sure that they're talking to the right person. Ask your local authority if you need help with this.

Then they'll ask you what you want to do with your account.

You can instruct them to close the account and pay you the cash value, or ..

make sure you're happy with how it's invested:

• If you're likely to keep it invested. it might make sense to leave it in an investment fund, if it's already in one;
• If you're likely to draw the money out soon, you might prefer to put it in cash now in case market prices fall;
• Or -  you might prefer to learn about investing and choose the investments yourself, in which case you might need to transfer the account to an account provider who offers self selection;

Lots of choices! Welcome to the new world of investing ...

Finally, The Share Foundation wants to help you get more familiar with money: there's a special course called the 'Stepladder of Achievement' designed to make it easy to learn about money. Here's your link to registering with the Stepladder programme. 

There's also a web-page with a simple summary for handling your finances, and it's full of links to other resources.

This presentation has been prepared by The Share Foundation, 1st Floor, Ardenham Court, Oxford Road,, Aylesbury, Bucks HP 19 8HT

Registered charity no. 1108068

https://www.sharefound.org