There is barely a branch to be found on the high street, and when you try to ring, you’ll probably be forced into an inane and infuriating conversation with an artificially unintelligent chatbot.
Estimates this week from Savills, the estate agency, suggested that 52 per cent of first-time homebuyers last year received support from the familial purse, down slightly on the previous year, but still higher than in any other year for a decade.
None of this may come as a great surprise. Rising house prices, general inflationary pressures and low economic growth have combined to make life ever more expensive over recent years. Members of the younger generations (notably millennials and Gen Z), who have accrued less wealth, are in a bind.
I am sure there are lots of generous relations who scrimp and save in order to help. Indeed, there are plenty of tales of parents taking out second mortgages to help their kids; of grandparents dipping into meagre pensions; and even of some family loans being recalled when circumstances change. However, there are presumably many other cases in which handing over a gift of £55k is not a particularly exceptional transaction for the person bestowing it.
square VICKY SPRATT
The Bank of Mum and Dad wants its money back
Read MoreThe ability of older generations to subsidise their younger relatives clearly highlights the generational inequality that exists in the UK today. But it’s not an even inequality. There are plenty of older people who do not have vast wealth, who are not sitting on property empires or final salary pension income. Their branches of the bank of mum and dad are very much not open for business – however much they would like to help their kids or grandchildren.
Generational inequality perpetuates broader injustice because that 55 grand’s worth of family help – unearned by those in receipt of it – enables better financial outcomes, even better life outcomes overall. And things are getting worse: in the last decade, the wealth gap between the richest 10 per cent and the poorest 10 per cent of the UK grew by half in absolute terms.
My own kids are not in line for a fortune. But I took advantage of the Government’s child trust fund scheme, and its Junior ISA successor, and have added a few quid every month since my children were tiny.
It will give them much less than some, but a lot more than many others. And in a world of unfairness, that’s about the best that can be said about it.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The Bank of Mum and Dad is handing out huge sums – and I can’t keep up )
Also on site :