Parents are turning to their children to help cover the rising cost of living.
One in four children and teens plan to offer their pocket or gift money to help their parents cover costs this Christmas, according to a survey from charity Action for Children.
One mum, Victoria, told The Sun her eldest daughter Kiera, who is 11, donates her pocket money to help pay the bills. She’s also given up birthday money and has promised to do the same with anything she gets for Christmas.
Victoria is a full-time carer to one of her children who has serious health problems. She said she hadn’t been able to buy one Christmas present this year.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said the 34-year-old. “Kiera saw me smashing into the tin money chest and said: ‘It’s ok mummy, you can have my money’.”
Another mum, who lives in north London with her four children, tells HuffPost UK she’s had to ask her older children to contribute to cover costs around the house because everything is now so expensive.
“It wouldn’t have been something I would have asked of them if I didn’t have to,” she says.
Irina* has three older children aged 21, 19 and 13 years old, as well as a two-year-old son. After her youngest was born, she struggled with postnatal depression and sought support from the charity Home-Start.
“My oldest two children who are 19 and 21 struggled to accept Adam,” she says. “At that point, I felt like I would have rather slipped away.
“I just needed someone to recognise what I was going through and give me some love.”
Irina doesn’t have a support network of friends with young children, so she found it quite alienating after having her baby. She sought support from a Home-Start volunteer called Leigh, who she describes as an “angel”.
“I was desperate for someone to just sit down and chat with me. Leigh started to take Adam out and gave me some time to breathe,” she says.
Irina hasn’t been able to go back to work since giving birth because she can’t afford the extortionate nursery fees. This, she says, has made her feel “more isolated”.
The UK has one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world. In fact, a full-time nursery place for one child under the age of two costs roughly £14,000 a year.
Having four children with a large age gap means she’s seen a “huge difference” in how expensive it is to raise a young child now compared to 10 and 20 years ago.
“Money and resources are scarce for everyone. Now I’m having to rely on secondhand things and donations that I didn’t in the past,” she says.
“Christmas has to be a lot cheaper this year compared to what I would normally do.”
She says her older children are “understanding” of the situation and she’s been quite upfront with them about how much money she has.
“I have had to keep to a strict budget so I don’t find myself in trouble in the New Year,” she explains.
With the highest inflation rate in over 40 years, 98% of working parents surveyed by Action for Children said they have worried about money over the past six months, with some citing sleeping troubles and mental health issues worsening as a result.
Around a third (32%) of parents said they’d become upset or stressed in front of their children, while a fifth (22%) have lost their temper with their kids.
One in five working parents worry about not being able to afford any presents this Christmas.
Some families are having to pawn all their electrical items to buy food for their children, the charity said, while it has also heard of cases where children are sleeping on piles of blankets because their parents can’t afford a bed.
One charity worker asked a young girl if there was anything she would like from Santa this year, to which she replied: “I’m not asking for anything and I’m not writing it down on paper...” She then nodded towards her mum and continued, “because she would get too sad.”
Home-Start is standing alongside families through the cost-of-living crisis, giving them the practical, compassionate and emotional support they need to give their children the best start in life. Find out more and support their appeal here.
*Name changed to provide anonymity.