Heres an idea

In April the government will make the first payments to people with children through the Child Trust Fund. This means everyone with a child born since September 2002 will get a voucher for at least £250 to invest in a tax-free savings account.

But a recent Association of Investment Trust Companies survey found that about 70% of people have never heard of this fund. A major reason for this is that banks and building societies are not targeting their publicity at people in lower income bands.

At community involvement specialist Access Matrix we wanted to ensure social housing tenants knew about the fund.

We found it difficult to get much publicity information from the major financial providers but heard that the Homeowners Friendly Society had some leaflets promoting the fund.

A friendly society can afford to do something that doesn’t make a lot of profit because it has no shareholders and is owned by policy holders.

In fact, the society is giving us more than 600,000 leaflets that we will distribute to tenants over the next three months. And as we will be putting them in with rent fees and newsletters, it won’t cost anything to send them out.

Several other associations have already asked for copies of the leaflets and we would like others to follow suit. Hopefully this will encourage people to get saving. I know £250 is not a lot of money, but it is a start.