Clause 10 - Further contributions by Inland Revenue
Child Trust Funds Bill
4:45 pm
Mr George Osborne (Tatton, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 180, in
page 6, line 18, leave out paragraph (b) and insert—
'(b) the children performing voluntary work for charities of a kind specified by regulations.'.
We come to the clause that covers further contributions by the Inland Revenue. The matter is a little confusing, because we held the main debate on the subject earlier at which time we discussed the contributions at the ages of seven, 11 or 16 of either £50 or £100. My amendment is an attempt to broaden the scope of the Bill by saying that children should be given a further contribution if they performed voluntary work for charities of the sort specified by Government regulations. It is a good idea. At present, the clause is general. It says that the circumstances in which a further contribution can be made are either when a child reaches a certain age or
''such other circumstances as may be so prescribed.''
What are those circumstances? My amendment is an attempt to tease them out by saying that the circumstances could be those in which a child is performing voluntary work for a charity. We could use child trust funds as an incentive, by providing a small contribution to someone's child trust fund to involve the child in volunteering, working for a charity and so on. I think modestly that that is an excellent idea.
I notice that the Minister hinted that she was thinking along such lines, when she appeared before the Select Committee. When asked a patsy question by the hon. Member for Wallasey (Angela Eagle), she said:
''as the Child Trust Fund develops we may think about how to broaden its appeal and increase its potential and spread assets more widely. Indeed, we have left the regulations quite flexible so we can introduce a top-up at the age of 7: we could introduce further tops-ups along the way if we thought that was desirable. Other people—academics and think tanks and so forth—have suggested that we may be able to combine the Child Trust Fund with our credits for voluntary work, for example.''
I fall into the category not of academics or think tanks, but of ''so forth'' by tabling the amendment because I want to know what the Minister was thinking, how far developed were the ideas and why she has left herself the option in clause 10 of
''other circumstances as may be so prescribed.''
Is it because she was thinking of giving some kind of credit in return for voluntary work for charities? I want to know what the hon. Lady is thinking.