You may only need your National Insurance number
If someone already knows which provider holds their Child Trust Fund, they can contact that provider directly.
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But people who have no idea where the account is can use HMRC’s official Child Trust Fund locator service.
HMRC says almost 500,000 people used the GOV.UK locator tool in the nine months to August 2026.
To search for their own account, users will generally need their National Insurance number.
The service itself is free. GOV.UK says HMRC can identify the provider that originally held the account, although the locator does not tell users the account balance directly.
HMRC says an online request can be completed quickly, although people may then need to wait for details of the provider before accessing the actual funds.
Who should check?
The key group is people born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011.
For those who have already turned 18, the account may already have matured.
And for anyone who does not remember ever having a Child Trust Fund, that does not necessarily mean there is no account.
HMRC may have opened one automatically.
This is particularly important for young adults whose parents no longer have the original paperwork, have changed address several times, or simply forgot the account existed.
The average forgotten pot is now £2,310
The latest HMRC statistics make the scale of the issue clear.
As of 5 April 2026, around 2.9 million Child Trust Fund accounts remained open, including approximately 827,000 matured accounts that had not yet been claimed or transferred.
The average market value of those matured, continuing accounts was £2,310.
For a young adult dealing with rent, university costs, a first car or other expenses, discovering an account containing a few thousand pounds could make a meaningful difference.
But unless the account holder tracks it down, the money can simply remain sitting with the provider.
It takes only a few minutes to start checking
Anyone who believes they may have a Child Trust Fund can begin by asking their parents or guardians whether they remember which provider was used.
If nobody knows, the official GOV.UK locator can be used to ask HMRC to identify the provider.
There is no charge for using the government service.
For hundreds of thousands of young adults, checking could be worthwhile.
Because according to HMRC’s latest figures, 827,000 matured accounts are still waiting — and the average one is worth £2,310.
