Labour's widely trailed Child Trust Funds are seen by many as a shift away from the conventional "cradle-to-grave" welfare approach.

Tony Blair's "big idea" for an expected June 7 general election would give newborn babies a minimum starter payment of £250. The fund would be topped up at the age of five, 11 and 16 giving a maximum endowment of £800 for those on low incomes - a sum that could grow to £3,000 by a teenager's 18th birthday.

Also announced by the prime minister, the chancellor, Gordon Brown and social security secretary, Alistair Darling was a "Savings gateway" scheme for low income earners with the government matching savings of up to £50 a month.

The electioneering shift away from welfare by right to a new Labour blend of rights and responsibilities - "the responsibility to save, but with the right to see the government give the help that is needed" - was billed by Blair as "changing the way we look at the welfare state, so that the welfare state becomes about government helping people to help themselves, rather than government doing everything for people or simply handing out benefits to people".

The original authorship of the policy has been variously claimed by the Adam Smith Institute, the Fabian Society and the IPPR - and Valerie Grove of the Times - and has sparked fears that the payments could be used to substitute for existing benefits.

The shadow chancellor, Michael Portillo said he would scrap the scheme if in government and the Liberal Democrats described the move as "cynical" electioneering.