Individual Savings Accounts: Children
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 13 February 2025 to Question 30044 on Individual Savings Accounts: Children, if she will change the rules on eligibility for ISAs to permit grandparents to take out ISAs for grandchildren with the consent of parents or guardians.
Answered by Emma Reynolds
To ensure that the ISA regime remains simple and sustainable, placing a restriction on who can open and manage a Junior Individual Savings Account (JISA) prevents more than one JISA of each type (cash or stocks and shares) being opened in error and ensures that there is a single point of contact for the giving of instructions. Given the nature of the role, the ISA rules require this to be someone with parental responsibility for the child. A grandparent who does not have parental responsibility is therefore unable to open or manage a Junior ISA on behalf of their grandchild.
While parents or legal guardians must open a JISA on behalf of their children, grandparents can then add funds to the account, up to the value of £9,000 a year.
As with all aspects of the tax system, the Government keeps the JISA policy under review. Any decisions on future changes will be taken by the Chancellor in the context of the wider fiscal and economic position.
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