Stay-at-home sons cost £20k more than daughters

SONS cost parents £20,000 more than daughters because they stay at home for four years longer.

A study of 1,000 parents found that sons tend to stay at the family home until they are 26, when they finally rent their own place or get a foot on the property ladder. Daughters fly the nest at the average age of 22.

The research found that the average adult child living at home costs parents £414 a month – just under £5,000 a year – in food, drink, bills and handouts.

Some parents said they even dipped into their pension pot or worked extra hours to help pay for bills racked up by their adult kids.

A spokesman for pensions firm Portafina, which conducted the study, said it was harder for youngsters to leave home because of high property prices, given that many were saving for a deposit.

The study also found that 20 per cent of parents refused to take any money from their children to help pay the bills.

Portafina managing director Jamie Smith-Thompson said parents should be ‘wary’ of dipping into their pensions to subsidise their children. He added: ‘It’s only natural for parents to have good intentions of helping adult children who remain in the family home.

‘I’ve no doubt that children who are welcomed back home after university or who live at home while they save for a house deposit are thankful. Even if they don’t always show it!

‘Worryingly, some parents are working longer or altering their lifestyle to cover the extra costs.

‘While pensions do offer more flexibility than ever… using the money to help family could leave you with less to live on when you need it. A parent withdrawing £200 a month from a pension pot between the age of 55 and 60… could be left nearly £14,000 worse off compared to leaving the money invested in their pension.’