Children now funding their parent's lifestyle
In a bizarre turnaround a report by Scottish Widows today has highlighted the fact that many parents are now struggling to survive financially and depending more and more upon their children. The report shows that in 2008 adult children gave around £6500 back to their parents who were struggling to make ends meet. However, the figure increased to £8250 in 2009 with 8% of adult children now helping to finance the living costs of their parents.
While a large slice of the money being returned to parents is from policies which were put aside for their children it does highlight the fact that more and more people are now struggling to cover the growing cost of living in their later years. The state pension has been falling in real terms for some time, the cost of living has increased dramatically and inflation is now running at over 3%, or possibly 4.8% if you use the retail price index.
There is no doubt that the situation for older parents will get worse before it gets better as there is no doubt that more and more people will be flirting with financial poverty. It will be interesting to see how the UK authorities react to this growing trend and indeed whether more funding is made available for those approaching later life.
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