Get that free money

If you have a child born between 2007-2009, the deadline for free money from the B.C. government is only weeks away.

Any child born after 2006 is eligible for the $1,200 B.C. Training and Education Savings Grant (BCTESG), but the final chance to claim this grant is fast approaching. The best part is that there’s no catch and all you need to do is signup to get the money.

The deadline for those born in 2007, 2008 or 2009 is Aug. 14, 2018, or the day before the child’s ninth birthday – whichever is later.

While many parents have already taken advantage of this grant, to the tune of $125 million in allocations, many more have not yet done so.

There are 75,000 eligible B.C. children who’s final application date is this August and that have not yet enrolled and that equates to $90 million of free money that will disappear next month.

Out of the 280,000 total eligible children in B.C., 176,000 are not yet enrolled to receive the grant when their deadline for applying comes due.

There has been ample coverage about the BCTESG and the pending deadlines to apply but confusion over the program still exists and that must be the reason many parents have not yet signed up.

It’s free money for your kids, costs you nothing and only takes about 15 minutes to enrol. What else could be keeping people away?

Here’s how it works:

• To be eligible for the $1,200 BCTESG, a child must be born in 2006 or later and both the parent and the child must be residents of British Columbia.
• The parent(s) setup a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) that should not cost anything to do.
• The RESP provider (financial institution) sends in the BCTESG application on the parent’s behalf
• $1,200 is deposited into the RESP account by the B.C. government

Yes, it’s really that simple. It’s free money that can be put toward your child’s post-secondary education. OK, maybe “free money” isn’t the right term since it’s money that you and I paid in taxes. But for the eligible children, it’s there to take for free if their parents choose to do so.   

Almost 80 per cent of job openings in B.C. over the next decade will require some form of post-secondary education and this RESP grant may be used for full-time and part-time studies in a wide range of programs. It’s not just full-time bachelor’s degree programs that qualify.

As mentioned above, there are no additional fees or financial contributions required to receive the $1,200 grant, so parents who cannot otherwise afford to put aside savings for education at this time can still open an RESP account and receive the BCTESG.

That money can be invested to grow and will ideally be worth a lot more than the $1,200 amount by the time these children are ready to use it.

If you or anyone you know has children born after 2006, I urge you to send them a copy of this column and make sure that they’ve signed up to take advantage of this program.

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions!

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.