Junior ISAs

Junior ISAs (JISAs) are the child equivalent of an Individual Savings Account (ISA). Children can hold a maximum of one Cash JISA and one Stocks & Shares JISA concurrently, and these are the two main types of ISA an adult can hold.

As mentioned above, there are two types of JISA:

All UK-resident children under the age of 18 who do not have a Child Trust Fund (CTF) are eligible for JISAs. This includes children born before the launch of the CTF (the CTF was available to children born between 1st September 2002 and 2nd January 2011). Anyone with parental responsibility for an eligible child can open a JISA for that child.

Eligible children will be able to open JISAs for themselves from age 16, and between ages 16 and 18, they can hold one of each type of JISA plus an ‘adult’ Cash ISA. The overall annual limit is £9,000 which can be split between JISA types or can be held in a single account.

Previous years’ JISA subscriptions can be transferred in whole or in part subject to the child not having two accounts of the same type at the end of the transfer process. Previous years’ JISA subscriptions must be transferred in full, meaning part transfers can only be made to a JISA of a different type; the end result being that the child still has no more than one of each type of JISA.

Savings in CTFs can be transferred to JISAs, and future subscriptions can be made to the JISA instead of the CTF if so preferred. Unlike ISAs however, anyone – individual or organisation – can contribute to a JISA.