By Charlotte Beugge

More than 18 months after they were finally abolished, many of the last-ever Child Trust Fund (CTF) vouchers to be issued appear to have been forgotten, according to figures from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

Of the 555,000 CTF vouchers issued in the 12 months to the end of June 2011, around 136,000 have yet to be invested. If vouchers are still not invested after a year then the government puts the money into a stakeholder CTF, many of which are index tracking funds.

The CTF was launched by the last Labour administration and gave children born after September 2002 a voucher worth at least £250 at birth which could be invested in a CTF.

The funds could be augmented by parents and other relatives and children wouldn't be able to access the cash in the CTF until they were 18.

But the current government at first decreased the value of the vouchers to £50 (or £100 for low income families) and then abolished them completely from January 2011.

It has now replaced them with Junior Isas (Jisas), which don't come with a voucher. Children who got CTF vouchers can't have Jisas.

Jason Hollands, head of corporate affairs at F&C Investments, which offers CTFs, says: "In time we would not be surprised if the CTF and Junior Isa regimes were merged, in the same way that Personal Equity Plans were eventually integrated into the Individual Savings Account scheme.

He added that there are still CTFs available and that the amount that can be saved in a CTF has been increased from £1,200 to £3,600 a year in line with the Jisa.