UK parents to feel pinch as adult offspring still need financial aid
BRITISH parents face an increasingly bleak financial future as their children attempt to make the transition into adult life, according to a new report.
Over half of parents believe that their children will not be able to support themselves when they reach adulthood and 95pc still expect to be funding their children when they leave home, says David White, chief executive of the Children's Mutual.
The result is that parents are resigning themselves to having to pay for their child's further education, deposit on their first house as well as general maintenance to ensure that their children don't fall too heavily into debt.
They are being forced to dip into their savings or raid their pension funds to fund their children's bills .
Two thirds of parents say their child will not be able to go to university without their support, according to the first annual Coming of Wage Report, commissioned by the Children's Mutual from the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford.
Just under half say their children won't be able to buy a property without their financial backing. But, many parents are finding it difficult to put away the necessary funds.
The majority of parents are only putting £50 (€72) or less aside a month to pay for their child's further education or deposit on their first home.
Four times more teenagers head to university than 30 years ago, with the average teen leaving university with a £12,000 (€17,198) debt and little hope of paying it off.
Even worse, with house deposits rising more than 450pc in 10 years, getting a foot on the housing ladder is almost impossible,.
The effects are already apparent, with the number of first-time buyers in the UK dropping 20pc in the last year and the average age of the first time buyer rising to 34.
- FAMILY wealth
