By Ramandeep Kaur – Mum to Harry (15) who has Down’s syndrome
As a parent of a young lad with learning disabilities, I am hugely disappointed that the government have decided not to implement the proposed Small Payments Scheme for parents/carers and young people who wish to access their Child Trust Funds.
I opened my son Harry’s account when he was born and I was not informed at any point that I would need to go through the Court of Protection to access his money when he turned 18. There was no information in the packs sent out to parents and I feel that I was ill informed. Had I been aware of this, I would most likely not have opened the account for him. He has £7000 sitting in an account which I will now have to pay up to £1000 in court fees to be able to access. The forms are long and quite complicated and I am having to ask others to help me complete them. As someone who has lots of experience in filling out forms, even I have been struggling to fill them out, so I worry that many people will find themselves in the same situation. If we ask a lawyer to support us, this will cost even more money.
Read more › “Response to the government consultation on the Small Payments Scheme”