Hide your piggy banks, children...your parents are pilfering £50 a year
PARENTS are pilfering an average of £50 a year in cash from their children’s piggy banks.
School dinner money and change for charities and parking are the main reasons mothers and fathers plunder the savings.
And the amount filched is increasing, the survey of 2,000 parents by Nationwide Building Society found.
The poll of those with children aged between four and 16 found 60 per cent dipped into their offspring’s savings.
The average amount taken annually was £46.20 – a 116 per cent rise on last year’s £21.41.
Scrambling
One in five parents admitted taking £60 or even more annually, while just over a fifth (21 per cent) raid the piggy bank at least twice a month.
Nearly two-fifths (39 per cent) said their child had noticed the money had gone missing.
Nationwide’s director of financial planning, Larry Banda, said: “At a time when increasingly fewer people carry cash, we can often get left short when scrambling around for change.
“Quite often it’s children who have more loose change than anyone, and it’s often nicely tucked away in a money box. It’s no surprise that their parents take the opportunity to raid their kid’s piggy bank for things such as parking or the school lunch money.”
More than a third (34 per cent) of parents admitted not always paying the money back.
Mr Banda suggested parents may want to try to keep a small kitty at home for loose change so they do not have to explain if they forget to return the money.
One in four owe their children £25 or more while five per cent say they owe their child £100 or more. Fathers tend to take more than mothers, and are less likely to top their child’s piggy bank back up afterwards, the financial planning survey found.
Paying for school dinners and covering school trips are some of the common reasons parents said they dip into piggy banks, the research found.
Other reasons provided include donating to charity days at school and paying for school clubs and societies.