The Sun
reports that the Coalition will today announce plans to abolish Child Trust Funds completely as part of their initial package of public spending cuts, adopting Liberal Democrat policy and so sacrificing the Tory manifesto pledge to protect them for families with incomes of less than £19,000.
Before the election the Tories had promised to restrict CTFs to the poorest families. The Lib Dems, who had called for the scheme to be axed completely, have now got their way.
Think-tanks from
the left and right - including the Fabians, ippr, ResPublica and the Demos progressive Conservatism project - have argued that sacrificing long-term asset policies would be the wrong spending cuts priority for any government concerned about wealth inequalities and social mobility.
The Social Market Foundation
added its voice to these calls at the weekend. The evidence is that other much more expensive forms of public incentive to save are considerably more heavily used by the wealthy, compared to the Child Trust Fund.
A leading provider of CTFs, The Children's Mutual, added: "The CTF is the most successful financial initiative we've ever had in this country, and it's not only the well-off who invest more than the voucher. Our figures show that 30% of households with an income of £19,000 or under typically save an additional £19 a month for their child via CTFs."
1 comment:
Bless those who voted Lib Dem because "Labour has moved too far to the right" and "to keep the Tories out", eh? At least they're getting the frontiers of the state rolled back.
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