ICMIF member OneFamily, a UK-based friendly society, is to use teen-friendly tech to make life easier for its 1.6 million child trust fund account holders, as their accounts mature from September this year.
OneFamily holds around a quarter of the UK’s child trust funds. It will be working with digital identity platform Yoti to manage the secure identification of its young customers as they begin to take control of their accounts.
Child trust funds were awarded to every child born between 1 September 2002 and 1 January 2011. On Tuesday 1 September 2020, the first recipients will be eligible to access their funds. It is anticipated that the OneFamily accounts will mature at the rate of around 20,000 per month from September for the next eight and a half years.
Jon Lee is the Head of Investment Proposition at OneFamily. He said, “We wanted to make it as fast and simple as possible for our customers to securely access their accounts, so it made sense to use the very latest technology available.
“As a mutual, we’re proud that we’re owned by and run for our customers. So, it’s entirely right that our focus is firmly on them – whether that’s in treating them respectfully, supporting them through the hard times or empowering them to manage their finances in a way that makes life easy for them.
“OneFamily’s vision is about inspiring better futures and who better to inspire than the next generation? So, we wanted to make it as fast and as simple for our Child Trust Fund customers to securely access their accounts – and it made sense to use the very latest technology available.
“Our customers will be able to prove who they are with the minimum of fuss through the free Yoti app, which they will be able to access via an app on their phones, reducing the risk of losing hard to replace paperwork. We understand that they are busy people, so our revolutionary approach will save them time and make their lives easier.
“We know from our discussions with our online teen community, that many don’t have the same types of identification to prove who they are. The Yoti app helps with this, by allowing them to use a broader range of documents.”
John Abbott, Chief Business Officer at Yoti said, “There couldn’t be a better fit than our partnership with OneFamily that puts IDs on the phones of people turning 18 and getting ready to live their adult lives. These young adults will be able to use Yoti to securely identify themselves for their child trust fund and a whole host of everyday situations where their valuable documents are best left safe at home.”
Users will also be able to reuse their Yoti account in their everyday life to verify their identity with other people and organisations; for example to prove their age for age-restricted purchases in over 12,000 UK convenience stores or to log into websites.
Yoti uses 256-bit encryption to secure user details and gives people more control over their personal data by allowing them to share specific identity attributes. They always know what details they are sharing and whom they are sharing them with.
