For generations, adulthood meant financial independence: leaving home, earning your own salary, and eventually being in a position to help your parents. But as rents, mortgages, food and household bills have soared, parental financial help is no longer something that stops when you leave home.
For some adults, the Bank of Mum and Dad isn’t just helping with weddings and house deposits; it’s also quietly paying electricity bills, buying the weekly food shop, covering childcare and transferring money when their grown-up children approach the end of the month with nothing left in the bank.
Data from SpareRoom shows that over a quarter of under-thirties received a deposit loan from parents or relatives to help them start renting, highlighting just how hard it is to leave home at all. Almost a fifth (19 per cent) had needed financial help to meet their monthly rent payments. Even renters over 40 can also be financially reliant on parents or relatives: 7 per cent receive assistance with rent, and one in 10 need a deposit loan.
The help can be invaluable, but accepting it can bring complicated emotions: gratitude mixed with embarrassment, guilt and the nagging feeling that, despite having a job and responsibilities of your own, you haven’t quite managed adulthood.
