 Child Trust Fund - government changes
27/07/10
The Coalition Government has announced that the Child Trust Fund will close to new accounts from 1st January 2011. It is currently introducing legislation to this effect.
In the meantime there are also changes to payments that children will receive. These are:
Starting payments: Children born on or after 2nd August 2010 will receive £50 (previously £250). Children born before 2nd August will still receive £250 as long as a) a child benefit claim is made by 1st November 2010, b) the child was in the UK before 2 August 2010, c) if the child was subject to immigration control up to 2nd August 2010, those controls were lifted by 1 November 2010.
Additional starting payments: Children born on or after 2nd August 2010 will receive £50 rather than the current £250. Children who were born before 2nd August and who qualify according to the criteria in the previous paragraph will still receive £250. Additional starting payments are made to children where there parents are in receipt of certain benefits/tax credits.
Age 7 payments: Children who reach age 7 on or after 1st August 2010 will no longer receive an age 7 payment at all.
Disability payments: Children entitled to Disability Living Allowance will not receive CTF disability payments for the tax year 2011/12 or later years.
Bristol Credit Union understands and shares members’ disappointment that the government has cut such a valuable service which gave all children a head start in life when they reached the age of 18. For many of our members with CTF accounts this was the only opportunity they had to build some savings for their children, and it was particularly valuable for those on lower incomes.
Rest assured that all current CTF accounts (and those opened until the vouchers cease on 1st January 2011) will continue to be operated as before. Parents are welcome to continue making top up payments. BCU continues to pay a very competitive interest rate on CTF accounts (currently 2.5% variable), and we are also investigating offering a Bristol Trust Fund where parents, grandparents and others can save for a child. Let us know if you are interested...
 AGM draft Minutes
15/03/2010
The Bristol Credit Union Annual General Meeting was held on 21st January 2010.
The meeting was well attended, and members voted to approve the recommended dividend of 0.5% for the financial year ending September 2009. This dividend has now been paid on all eligible deposits.
The Board of Directors reviewed the Draft Minutes of the meeting at their own February Board Meeting, and has approved their issue to members as part of our commitment to openness and transparency.
The minutes can be found in the ’About Us’ section of the website - click here.
Please note that these Minutes are draft only, until approval by members at the next AGM.
Current Account - on-line access
25/09/09
We’ve improved the information available on our secure members’ area so that members with a BCU Current Account can now view their transactions on-line as well as their balance.
Both transactions and balances are shown as at the close of business the previous working day, and are not ’live’ in the same way as the balance you can see at a cash machine, but we hope that members find this new functionality useful.
Transactions will initially show back to 14th September, but will build up over time to show account history.
Expanded membership for BCU
Membership of Bristol Credit Union is now open to anyone living or working in the wider Bristol area.
Following approval by the AGM earlier this year, and confirmation from the Financial Services Authority, we can now accept members from any of the four local authority areas that make up the former county of Avon.
That means that people who live or work in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath & North East Somerset, or North Somerset now qualify to join BCU.
For people in North Somerset though there is another option open to them, which may be more convenient - see here for details of the North Somerset Credit Union.
North Somerset CU are good friends of Bristol CU, and we won’t be marketing our services in their area, so please do see them first if you live in North Somerset.
We look forward to welcoming new members from across the former Avon county area.
CAUTION - PHISHING EMAILS
It has been brought to our attention that a member has received an email purporting to be about her credit union account on-line access.
The email claims to be from the National Credit Union Administration and asks for account details in order to unlock a frozen account.
BRISTOL CREDIT UNION DOES NOT SEND EMAILS OF THIS NATURE. IF YOU RECEIVE AN EMAIL LIKE THIS PLEASE DELETE IT - IT IS A SCAM DESIGNED TO GET YOU TO PROVIDE ACCOUNT DETAILS.
The email is not directed at you particularly because you’re a credit union member, but is a blanket email sent to millions of email addresses in the hope that some people will be members of a credit union and will respond.
The National Credit Union Administration is the US credit union regulator and is nothing to do with UK credit unions in any event, and they do not send out such emails either.
If you have any concerns at all, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Maintaining the security and confidentiality of your credit union account is of the utmost importance to us.
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