Children's pocket money on the rise for first time in seven years.
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- Category: Childhood Issues News
Halifax survey shows average British child gets £6.25 per week from parents
Parents finding themselves short of ready money might be better off breaking into their children's piggy banks than searching down the back of the sofa.
The cost of living might be soaring but it is many years since children have been so wealthy, with pocket money levels turning the corner for the first time in seven years.
Interviews with 1,202 British children have found the average child now gets £6.25 pocket money a week. This compares with 2010's seven-year low when children had an average of £5.89 each week.
Over the past 12 months the average child's cash has risen by 6%. Those aged eight get an average of £4.44, increasing to £5.65 at 11, £6.68 at 13, and £8.38 at 15, finds the Halifax Pocket Money Survey 2011.
The rise comes as adults are migrating to cheaper shops such as Aldi and Lidl to compensate for the remorseless rise of inflation as measured by the consumer price index – now double the rate of annual earnings growth.
The research did not factor in ethnic differences between families but the average London child does best, with £7.63 a week. In the south-west they fare worst, getting £5.15. Scots youngsters pocket an average of £6.89; those in the West Midlands £6.49.
Children have still some way to go before a return to the 2003 pocket money high of £8.37 a week.
True to tradition boys manage to extract more cash from their parents than girls: £6.41 rather than £6.09. But the gap is closing – the difference last year was 40p.
Read more at The Guardian website.
