Child Trust Fund should be scrapped says assembly member

10.10.56pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 10th Sep 2007

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has repeated his call for the Child Trust Fund to be scrapped, with the money being used instead to help children in the early years of their education.

Mr. Black was reacting to news that Labour want children to be required to study how their Child Trust Funds work. The answer to a Parliamentary Question by the Liberal Democrats in Westminster has highlighted how the fund will have no impact on inequality until 2020 at the earliest.

"Even the Labour Government in Westminster admits that the money poured into the Child Trust Fund won't make the slightest difference to inequality for well over a decade, " said Mr. Black. "Here in Wales where child poverty remains a stain on Labour's record in government, this is particularly wasteful. Low income families with children need practical help now, not lessons on how a trust fund works.

"The Child Trust Fund should be scrapped and the money should be used where it would really make a difference - helping youngsters in the earliest years of their education. Everybody knows that it is in the vital first years in education that the trend is often set for how people fare in later life."