Children 'expect financial helping hand'

Children expect their parents to provide them with a financial helping hand for their future and parents feel the same way, a new survey shows.



Around 73 per cent of the British 11 to 15-year-olds surveyed by The Children's Mutual said that they expect their parents to help pay for them to go to university, while 60 per cent anticipated financial help to buy their first home.

Meanwhile, 91 per cent of parents said that they thought they would end up helping to fund their child going to university, while 88 per cent wanted to contribute towards their child's driving lessons.

Half of all parents (48 per cent) expected to help their children to buy their first home and 83 per cent wanted to put money aside for their wedding.

Chief executive of The Children's Mutual David White said that child trust funds (CTF) provided an opportunity for parents to save small amounts regularly over the long-term.

He stated: "By saving over 18 years, it could prove easier for parents to help fund their children's futures, rather than by having to find money out of savings, earned income or their mortgage when their child is older."

Northern Irish parents are the most generous contributors to CTFs, research from Engage Mutual assurance found, paying around 45 per cent more than English parents.

'Baby boomers find savings stretched'

Britain's baby boomer generation are finding their savings stretched by having to support both their parents and their children financially, a new report claims.

The research from Engage Mutual revealed that while this generation of Britons are looking forward to retirement as the most well-off pensioners the UK has ever known, 55 to 64-year-olds are more likely to be supporting grown-up children and elderly relatives than any other age group.

Around 60 per cent of 55 to 64-year-olds are contributing financially towards the costs of their adult children, while 25 per cent are supporting their elderly parents' retirement.

Engage Mutual's Karl Elliott said that although the baby boom generation was born at a period of post-war economic hardship and were now retiring in relative comfort, their finances were likely to be stretched further than was the case for their parents.

"With children now gaining financial independence later in life and parents living for longer, it is important that the middle generation are prepared for the eventuality that they will be supporting their family for longer than they expected," he stated.

Parents collectively spend £185 billion supporting their adult children with costs such as housing deposits and weddings, according to a recent study from GE Life.

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