Industry News
Budget offers 'no help' with children's savings
Posted on 13th March 2008
Many families who hope to send their children to independent schools save up for many years, but a leading building society has warned that the chancellor is not doing enough to encourage parents to save for their children.
Before the Budget, Nationwide called on the government to extend its child trust fund (CTF) scheme, which currently only benefits a small number of families, by increasing the tax exemption thresholds for interest earned on savings for children by parents.
It also recommended that the government should make a further contribution to CTFs when the child reaches 11.
At the moment, the society says parents who are not eligible through the scheme are "penalised through taxation".
However, the chancellor did not use the Budget to introduce any extra measures to help people save for their children's future, which could prove very costly as school fees continue to rise.
The Telegraph newspaper has suggested that for most parents who want to educate their children in the private sector there is only thing to do: "Start squirrelling away what you can when you can." 