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Grown-up children in the UK are tugging on their parents' purse-strings to the tune of some £12,000, a survey shows.
Around 55 per cent of parents have given or loaned their children or grandchildren thousands of pounds, up on 39 per cent last year, according to the second annual Scottish Widows savings and investment report.
It shows that the "savings sap" is now a total £67 billion, with offspring being handed an average £12,610.
The largest proportion of adult children - 42 per cent - are using the funds to pay off debt, compared to just 22 per cent last year, while 29 per cent are spending the money on buying property, down from 32 per cent a year ago.
Other children are using parental handouts for living expenses and education fees.
"Baby boomers, now mostly retired or entering retirement, have just about saved enough to fund their retirement but they are facing their funds being depleted by their offspring," said Professor Merlin Stone of Bristol Business School.
Seeking handouts
"The current generation of young adults is facing increasing levels of debt as well as steep house prices, so are increasingly turning to their parents for hand-outs to help with these fin-ancial drains.
"With housing transaction volumes falling, the economic situation perhaps weakening and financial institutions tightening their lending criteria, it's not surprising to see that what was the joint largest area of help - housing purchase/deposit - remaining static, while debt payoff has jumped into the lead."
The survey also reveals that over half of those parents who have already given their children handouts expect to have to shell out again in the future.
These parents have already forked out more than average at £14,525 and think they will have to donate another £11,585.
Four in 10 parents feel their children need the money more than they do, even although more than a third had planned to use the money in retirement.
Anne Young, a savings expert at Scottish Widows, said: "It seems that although people could well be tightening the purse strings at a time when the credit crunch could affect finances, adult children are still managing to extract what they can from Mum and Dad.
Rising numbers
"Both the amount of money given and the number of children 'sapping' has increased in the last year, to the extent that the overall 'sap fund' is well in excess of £60 billion.
"That's a significant amount, and the glaring hole in parents' finances needs to be replaced, or prepared for in the first instance, as the problem is clearly not going to go away."
YouGov surveyed 5,783 adults for the poll.
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