NS&I gives aunts, uncles and family friends the chance to save for young children

Buying Premium Bonds for children and giving them an extra head start in life will become even easier for more adults, from today.

Anyone aged 16 or over can now invest in Premium Bonds on behalf of children under the age of 16, meaning that aunts, uncles and family friends, as well as parents and grandparents, can now give children a gift to encourage a savings habit.

This change to Premium Bonds, first revealed in the October 2018 Budget, is aimed at inspiring a stronger savings culture, presenting young people with greater opportunities to save by allowing gifting into one of the UK’s best loved savings products.

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, said:

“Putting money aside for our children’s future is something we all want to do, and Premium Bonds have long been an excellent way to give them a head start. 

“We are now making that even easier, allowing aunts, uncles and family friends to buy Premium Bonds for under 16s.

“Doing this will not only help families and friends support their loved ones, but also encourage a savings culture by giving young people something to build on when they themselves start saving for the future.”

Ian Ackerley, NS&I Chief Executive, said:

“Premium Bonds hold a special place for many savers, and we know, often, that Premium Bonds are bought for a child. We are delighted to give the opportunity for those other than parents or grandparents to give the gift of Premium Bonds, and allow those to pass on the tradition and the gift of savings to the children in their life.

“By opening up Premium Bonds to more people, we hope to encourage inter-generational saving, kick-starting young people’s savings habits and making NS&I an integral part of young people’s savings journey.”

Premium Bonds can be bought as gifts online at nsandi.com/gift or by post and the purchaser will need to nominate one of the child’s parents or guardians to look after the Bonds until the child turns 16 years old. The nominated parent or guardian will then be sent the Bond record, any prizes won and any payment for cashed-in Bonds. If the customer has chosen to have prizes reinvested for a child then prizes will be paid to the child’s Premium Bonds account.

This latest improvement to Premium Bonds follows the reduction of the minimum investment to £25 in February this year and in March, NS&I being one of the first adopters in the banking sector in the UK to use voice applications as customers can now use their voice, through Alexa, to see if they have won any prizes in the Premium Bonds monthly draw.

Since allowing grandparents the ability to gift online last August, over 43,000 have bought Premium Bonds on the internet as a gift.

Younger savers:

Many children have important adults in their lives other than a parent, guardian or grandparent. NS&I research on cash gifting revealed that 40% of people who gifted cash to a child aged under 16 has, within the last year, given to a relative under 16 that wasn’t their own child or grandchild, while 15% gifted cash to a friend’s child and 7% to a godchild.

Our research also found that 44% of people gifted cash to a child under 16, with over a third of those (35%) giving gifts valued between £25 and £50. 11% of people said encouraging someone to save was part of the reason they had gifted cash. 

Over 778,000 Premium Bond holders are currently under 16, holding £1.2 billion, and 10 have won the £1 million jackpot prize since it was introduced in April 1994.

Over £384 million worth of Premium Bonds were bought for children under 16 since August 2018 and of those, over 64,000 won prizes including one prize of £10,000 and 36 prizes worth £1,000.

In the August 2019 prize draw, just under 50,000 prizes were won by those aged under 16, worth more than £1.3 million – the highest being £5,000.

Premium Bonds are one of the country’s most popular savings products with over 21 million customers having invested more than £81 billion.

Notes to Editors

  1. NS&I has spokespeople available for interview and a wealth of facts and figures (including regional) about Premium Bonds. If you require any further details, please contact the NS&I media team on the contact details below or tweet your question to @nsandi
  2. All Premium Bonds prizes are free of UK Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax.
  3. NS&I is one of the largest savings organisations in the UK, offering a range of savings and investments to 25 million customers. All products offer 100% capital security, because NS&I is backed by HM Treasury.
  4. The annual Premium Bonds prize fund rate is currently 1.40% and the odds of each individual Bond number winning any prize are currently 24,500 to 1.
  5. Customers can buy Premium Bonds online at nsandi.com and over the phone by calling 08085 007 007. This is a freephone number and calls to it from the UK are free from both landlines and mobiles. Calls may be recorded. Customers can also buy by post. Existing customers can also buy by bank transfer and standing order and currently each investment must be at least £50 for bank transfers and standing orders.
  6. Customers can check prizes through the official NS&I Premium Bonds prize checker Alexa skill. This is available from the Amazon Alexa store.
  7. Pictures of Premium Bonds, including the Premium Bonds prize checker app and ERNIE are available in high-resolution jpeg format from the NS&I media team.
  8. The research was conducted by Populus with an online sample of 2004 GB adults 18+ between 26th and 28th July 2019. Data is weighted to be representative of the population of Great Britain. Targets for quotas and weights are taken from the National Readership Survey, a random probability F2F survey conducted annually with 34,000 adults. Populus is a founder member of the British Polling Council and abides by it rules. For further information see http://www.britishpollingcouncil.org/
  9. Further information on NS&I, including press releases and product information, is available on the website at nsandi.com. Follow us on Twitter: @nsandi or join the conversation on Facebook: Premium Bonds made by ERNIE.