Why the hotel of mum and dad can be a real bargain

Kirsty Mcluckie on adult kids’ household contributions

Asurvey of 1,000 parents with adult children living with them by Barratt Homes has calculated that the younger generation are saving up to £17,000 a year on rent, bills and food.

Those aged over 18 who have returned to the family home having previously lived away are paying up to 90 per cent less than the average cost of general living costs in the UK, if they lived independently.

In London parents charge a mere 8 per cent of the average cost of living in the area, compared to what they’d be spending living away from home in a shared two-bedroomed apartment.

In Edinburgh children save more than £7,000, contributing only 13 per cent of what they’d be spending on rent and bills away from home.

Higher income households – especially those with parents bringing home a combined £75,000 or more – request the largest contribution from their children despite having the most disposable income.

You would hope in such cases the kids get a better class of accommodation and groceries.

I’ve been involved in a lot of discussions around the subject of boomerang kids recently. A friend, in a new relationship in her 40s, bemoans that her partner’s son is still living at home, at the age of 23.

Romantic weekend visits are somewhat hampered, it seems, by this young adult hanging around the house when my friend’s opinion is that he should have long left it.

She opines that the youth has a well-paid job and at his age most kids would want to be sharing with flatmates, not a parent.

I sympathised until I learned that the household in question is in London, where as we

know, a graduate starting salary will not afford a half share of a proverbial broom cupboard.

My household is also working our way through the transition to adulthood and what is fair to contribute.

Our 21-year-old daughter is usually away at uni, but is currently home for a month before exams, purportedly to revise.

Number two child, our son aged 18, is heading to university in September but in the meantime is on a gap year, living at home, working full time and saving for a summer of travelling.

So their circumstances regarding paying board and rent are vastly different.

My daughter doesn’t pay anything, on the grounds that she is a temporary guest and needs all her money for living expenses during term time.

My son, meanwhile, has been asked to make a smallish weekly contribution.

Partly this is down to my belief that giving someone his age unfettered access to even a minimum monthly wage, with no expenses to consider, will not end well. And partly I am aware that we will need to support him to an extent, when he is a student, and banking some cash with us beforehand is a reasonable request.

It is still a sore point, and the grumbles coming from him are not helped by my husband’s Monty Pythonesque comments that back in the day his mother took half the wages of all her five children when they lived at home.

For those trapped in the situation long term it explains why so many parents offer to help their children financially to buy or rent their own place.

Better to be the bank of mum and dad, than the hotel of mum and dad.