Parents guilty of taking €60 a year from children’s piggy banks

 

More and more parents are dipping into their children’s piggy banks.

A survey of parents of children between the ages of four and 16 found that 60 percent of them have taken from their children’s savings. The survey, conducted by the UK’s Nationwide Building Society, found that over the course of a year, mums and dads were taking up to £50 (€57) from their children's stash. From school lunch money to loose change for parking, parents revealed the most common reasons they took money from their children’s piggy bank in the survey. And it seems not all parents are paying their ‘loan’ back, with more than 30 percent admitting they don’t. The survey also found that it is dads that have the stickiest of fingers, with dads being most likely to go digging in the piggy bank and least likely to pay them back.

"At a time when increasingly fewer people carry cash, we can often get caught short when scrabbling around for change,” said Nationwide’s director of financial planning, Larry Banda. “And quite often it's children who have more loose change than anyone, as it's often nicely tucked away in a money box. "So, it's no surprise that parents take the opportunity to raid their kid's piggy bank for things such as parking or the school lunch money."