Junior ISA contributions

Junior ISAs allow your child to keep more of their money by protecting any positive returns they receive from income tax and capital gains tax.

Only a child’s parent or legal guardian can open a Junior ISA account on their behalf.

Your child can have one Junior Cash ISA and/or a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA at any time, into which you can currently contribute a maximum of £9,000 per tax year, per eligible child. You can split the amount however you choose between a Junior Cash ISA and a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA as long as the combined amount doesn’t exceed the annual limit.

You don’t need to use the same provider for your child’s Junior Cash ISA and Junior Stocks and Shares ISA, so you’ve got flexibility to choose the best option for you and your child.

At the start of each new tax year, on 6 April, the child’s annual Junior ISA allowance re-sets and you can start another year of tax-efficient saving for each child.

Your child will only be able to access the money within their Junior ISA when they turn 18.

When they turn 18, the Junior ISA is automatically changed into an adult ISA. At this point, they can choose to keep saving or investing, or they can withdraw some or all of the balance to help pay for things like university, or a new car.

If you want to build an investment pot for your child that neither you or they can touch until your child turns 18, then a Junior ISA could be the answer. Any money paid into a Junior ISA belongs to the child and cannot be withdrawn by anyone other than the child when they turn 18.  

Junior ISAs are available to children who:

• Are under the age of 18
• Are residents of the UK, or are dependants of a crown employee (e.g. army employee based overseas)
• And don’t already have a Child Trust Fund (CTF).

You can transfer your Child Trust Fund over to a Wealthify Junior ISA, but your child cannot have a CTF and a Junior ISA at the same time. When transferring a CTF to a Junior ISA, the full balance must be transferred.   

Junior ISAs can only be opened by the parent or legal guardian of a child under the age of 18 who fits the eligibility criteria. Once opened the parent/guardian will become the registered contact for the account.

As the registered contact for a Junior ISA, you are the only person authorised to make decisions about the management of the account. You’ll also need to keep Wealthify informed if the child’s personal details change; e.g. if they change their name, address, contact number, or get married. 

When the child turns 18, they will become the registered contact and their Wealthify Junior ISA will change into an adult ISA. They can either keep investing, move it somewhere else, or withdraw some or all of it e.g. to help pay for university, or a car.

The money in a Junior ISA will never belong to the parent/guardian. It belongs to the child, but they won’t be able to access it until their 18^th birthday.

No – the Junior ISA can only be opened and funded after the child is born. We need the child’s date of birth so that we will know when your child turns 18.

The parent or legal guardian opening the account will be the registered contact, but the money will not be accessible to them and will always belong to the child. The child won’t be able to access the money until their 18^th birthday.

As the registered contact for a Junior ISA, you are the only person authorised to make decisions about the management of the account. You’ll also need to keep Wealthify informed if the child’s personal details change; e.g. if they change their name, address, contact number, or get married.

When the child turns 18, they become the registered contact and their Wealthify Junior ISA is rolled into an adult Stocks & Shares ISA. They can either keep investing, move it somewhere else, or withdraw some or all of it e.g. to help pay for university or a car.

Yes, you can invite anyone to be a contributor. That could be your parents, siblings, cousins, friends, neighbours… the list goes on. Once they’ve accepted the invite, and passed verification, they’ll be able to add to your child’s ISA whenever they want.

The only caveat to this is that they’ll need to live in the UK and be a UK tax resident, aged over 18.

You can invite someone to pay into your Wealthify Junior ISA by using our 'Friends and Family' feature. You can find out more about this here: Junior ISA family friends.

If you’d like to make regular, monthly payments to a Wealthify Junior ISA, you can set up a Direct Debit.

You can top up your child’s Junior ISA whenever you like by making a one-off Direct Debit or a bank transfer. For example, when your child receives money as a birthday or Christmas gift. Just sign in to your Wealthify account and visit your dashboard, then click on the ‘top up’ link next to your Junior ISA account.    

No matter how the contribution is made, it MUST come from the bank account that was used to open your Wealthify account.

We don’t currently accept card payments.

No, this service won't cost you a penny. We wanted to make it easy and affordable for your friends and family to add to your child's Junior ISA, so there are no extra charges or costs for this service.

You’ll need to log in to your Wealthify account and invite them – the invite will include all the details they need to know in order to get started. They’ll then need to sign up and create a Wealthify contributor account (they can skip the signing up bit if they already invest with us!)

From their Wealthify dashboard, they’ll be able to verify their identity either through a text message we’ll send them or a PIN code you provide. Once they’ve completed verification, they’ll be able to add to your child’s Junior ISA.

If they’re new to Wealthify then they’ll need to set up their bank details to get started, but this will be saved for future contributions.

Yes! By taking the steps for verification and creating separate contributor accounts, we've made sure that your Junior ISA Plans are still safe and secure.

Your contributors will only be able to see how much they’ve added, and the amount left in the Junior ISA's tax allowance for that year. They’ll also be able to see any messages they’ve sent with their contributions.

We all like to add a note when you give a gift, so anytime your contributors add to your child’s ISA they’ll have the option of attaching a message for the parent and child to read!

Money is a pretty sensitive subject, so we don’t want to show them what you or other contributors have added. This way, they’ll easily be able to see how much they’ve added to your child’s future while keeping everyone else’s information private.

For more information read our Privacy policy.