Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using the appointee scheme to support disabled young people who do not have the mental capacity to access the money in their Child Trust Fund accounts.

The DWP appointee system gives access to social security benefits only. It does not give access to monies held in Child Trust Funds. Where the child is incapable of accessing the funds themselves, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides for how a third party can do that on the child’s behalf, namely, through the Court of Protection. There are no current plans to change this approach.