All children born before or after September 1st 2002 are eligible for a voucher of £250 to invest in a CTF account, with children from families who qualify for full Child Tax credit receiving an additional £250.

A further payment of £250 will then be made at age seven, with all money locked into the account until the child turns 18.

In addition to providing children with savings they may otherwise not have at age 18, the CTF was launched in a bid to encourage children into the habit of saving, teach children about the benefits of saving and to help them understand personal finance.

This comes against a backdrop of growing concerns that people too few people are financially aware.

Having been up and running for more than 18 months, take-up of the CTF scheme is encouraging, with many parents choosing to take advantage of making tax-free contributions to their child's account. Friends and family can make contributions of £100 per month, or £1,200 per year, tax-free.

Indeed, figures from the PEP and ISA Manager's Association (Pima) have revealed that British parents are spending more on their children's CTF accounts than they are on prams and baby equipment.

More than 312,150 CTF accounts have monthly direct debits attached to them, while in excess of 300,000 have monthly contributions paid in, at an average of £20.

This equates to £240 a year, considerably above the amount spent by British parents on other items such as prams and baby equipment.

So far more than £22 million has been put into CTF accounts as one-off payments which, when combined with the 300,000 people making monthly contributions, means that more than £100 million has been invested in CTF since friends and family were able to do so.

"At a time when there are a lot of demands on families' resources, it is tremendous to see that in excess of £100 million in additional monies has been saved through the child trust fund, and this is in only 16 months," Pima director general Tony Vine-Lott concluded.

However, there is no room for complacency, as the government is keen to encourage sustained contributions into CTF accounts.

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