Research from pensions and retirement specialist LV= highlights how half of UK parents are spending thousands of pounds supporting adult children during the pandemic.
The LV= Wealth and Wellbeing Monitor* reveals that 50% of parents with children aged 18+ have spent on average nearly £1,300 over three months supporting their children.
Some 2% (377,000**) of parents of children 18+ say they have spent more than £10,000.
Parents are worried how the pandemic is disrupting the education, finances and employment prospects of their children age 18+. To support them, they are paying for a variety of expenses such as rent (6%), petrol, mobile phones or food (18%), laptops or computers to enable children to work/ study from home (5%), or are letting them move back home (6%).
The LV= Wealth and Wellbeing Monitor* - a quarterly survey of 4,000 UK consumers – shows:
How parents have supported their children financially over three months | ||||
Parent of child 18 or older | Parent of child 18-30 | Parent of child 30 or older | Mass affluent parent with children 18 or older | |
% who have spent money helping adult children | 50% | 61% | 43% | 53% |
Average amount spent | £1,297 | £1,010 | £1,579 | £1,756 |
“The covid pandemic is disrupting the education, employment prospects and finances of many young adults. It’s striking to see how this is affecting their parents and many are digging deep into their pocket to support their children.
“Younger adults are one of the groups most affected by the economic impact of lockdowns and nearly half of those aged 18-34 say their finances are worse than they were three months ago. This means that parental support is the only way many young people can afford to pay for expensive items such as rent, running a car or even house deposits.
“LV=’s research shows that parents are particularly worried about their children’s university education being severely disrupted and the impact this will have on their exams and subsequent employment prospects. Parents of university-age children also worry about their children’s mental health and fear lockdown has left them lonely, isolated and depressed.
“They are doing things such as encouraging adult children to move back home to live rent-free, meeting their children’s day-to-day spending for items such as food, mobile phones and petrol and helping them with expensive item such as rent and house deposits.”
*LV= surveyed 4,000 nationally representative UK adults via an online omnibus conducted by Opinium in December 2020.
** Figure based on UK adult population of 52.6m