Junior ISA limit £9,000 for 2026 to 2027: who can pay in, control at 16, withdrawals at 18, worked for a client meeting

A client with a daughter of four and a son of seven asks what they can put away for the children and what the children can do with it later. The answer is on one GOV.UK page, and the working makes the numbers easy to put in front of the adviser.

What GOV.UK says

For 2026 to 2027 the page states that the savings limit for Junior ISAs is £9,000. The main points:

• A parent or guardian with parental responsibility opens and manages the account, but the money belongs to the child.
• The child must be under 18 and living in the UK.
• There are two types: cash, where interest is not taxed, and stocks and shares, where capital growth and dividends are not taxed. A child can hold one or both.
• "The child can take control of the account when they're 16, but cannot withdraw the money until they turn 18."
• You cannot have a Junior ISA as well as a Child Trust Fund. To switch, ask the provider to move the trust fund into a Junior ISA.

I did not read how the £9,000 is split between the two types, or who else may pay in, so treat those as questions for the adviser.

The limit in monthly and family terms

Checks: £9,000 / 12 = £750; £9,000 x 2 = £18,000 and £750 x 2 = £1,500; £9,000 x 3 = £27,000 and £750 x 3 = £2,250.

What 18 years of payments adds up to

The page gives no growth rates. For illustration we assume 4% a year, with each year's payments added at the year end and nothing withdrawn. That is our assumption, so replace it with the adviser's own projection basis. The paid-in column needs no assumption.

Checks:

• Paid in: £1,200 x 18 = £21,600; £3,000 x 18 = £54,000; £9,000 x 18 = £162,000.
• The growth factor for 18 year-end payments at 4% is (1.04^18 - 1) / 0.04, which is about 25.645. Then £1,200 x 25.645 = £30,774; £3,000 x 25.645 = £76,935; £9,000 x 25.645 = £230,805. The table figures use the unrounded factor, hence the few pounds' difference.
• Growth is value minus paid in: for £250 a month that is about £76,936 - £54,000 = £22,936.

Illustrative only. Real returns differ, and a cash and a stocks and shares account behave differently.

The ages that matter

The page sets two dates in the child's life, and they are different:

For the client's children, aged four and seven, the first control date is 12 years away for the daughter (16 - 4) and 9 years away for the son (16 - 7). Withdrawals are 14 and 11 years away (18 - 4 and 18 - 7).

The money belongs to the child, so the adviser may want the client to understand that a gift into a Junior ISA cannot be taken back. That is a point for the adviser to raise, and not something the page tells us about in detail.

What to put on the review note

• Children and ages. List each child with date of birth, and whether they already hold a Junior ISA or a Child Trust Fund.
• What the client wants to pay. A monthly figure against the £750 monthly equivalent of the limit.
• Which type. Cash or stocks and shares is the adviser's recommendation, informed by the child's age and the client's attitude to risk.
• Other gifts. Money given to children may sit alongside the gift rules in the Inheritance Tax gifts guide, which I did not read in connection with Junior ISAs.
• The client's own allowances. For their own long-term saving see the Lifetime ISA guide and the cash ISA limit guide.
• Child Benefit. If the client has children and income near the threshold, check the Child Benefit charge guide.

Overlyft builds AI staff who join your advice team and read each family's details before the review, list every child's ages and existing accounts, work out the monthly and 18-year figures, and prepare the one-page summary for the adviser to approve.

This is general information, not financial advice. Check GOV.UK and the client's circumstances before you advise.