TCM0134120 - Miscellaneous: C to D: Child Trust Fund - additional payments - referral received (Info)

Additional CTF payments criteria

How additional CTF payments are issued
The role of TCO
The role of CTFO

Additional CTF payments criteria

The Child Trust Fund (CTF) was introduced in April 2005. It entitled all children born on or after 1 September 2002 to an initial endowment from the Government. Some 40% of these children will also be entitled to an additional CTF payment. Eligibility for this additional payment will be determined from data held on the tax credits computer. This means that the child is entitled to an additional payment if

  • the household has responsibility for the child on the Child Trust Fund (CTF) date

and

  • either customer is in receipt of Income Support (IS), Jobseeker’s Allowance (PSA) or Pension Credit (PC) or the household income for that year is below the CTC-only income threshold.

Note: Only Child Trust Fund Office (CTFO) can confirm the CTF date. For Tax Credit Office (TCO) purposes, this is assumed to be the Monday following the child’s date of birth, unless otherwise informed. If the child was born on a Monday then, for TCO purposes, the following Monday would be considered as the CTF date.

The data required by CTFO is sent automatically by the tax credits computer after the award year has been finalised. However, there are certain cases that aren’t sent over automatically - for example, complex cases. These cases along with any exceptions that fall out from the data transferred over to CTFO and customer queries will need to be looked at clerically to determine whether an additional CTF payment is appropriate.

You will receive a request from the CTFO to establish entitlement to an additional CTF payment for a child.

You must complete the referral form ‘CTF Request for Details for Additional Payments’ and return it to the CTFO.

How additional CTF payments are issued

TCO provides CTFO with the information required on all complex cases that are entitled to receive additional CTF payments. TCO may also have to handle requests from CTFO, but only in exceptional circumstances, for example, because CTFO are unable to access a claim.

The following details must be provided to the CTFO

  • customer’s NINO
  • customer’s title, forename and surname
  • customer’s address
  • details of the children that have been born on or after 1 September 2002 (surname, forenames and date of birth)
  • child’s additional CTF payment entitlement date (first Monday after the child’s date of birth).

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The role of TCO

TCO identifies those families who satisfy the additional payments criteria above and should pass this information on to CTFO.

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The role of CTFO

It’s the responsibility of CTFO to issue additional CTF payments to tax credits customers who satisfy the eligibility criteria as above, if a child is born on or after 1 September 2002.

There is an Action Guide for this subject, select TCM0134140 to access it