Desperate parents have resorted to paying their kids to do schoolwork and stay quiet while they work from home, a survey has revealed.
The research, from Halifax, suggested that 61 per cent of parents have dipped into their wallets in a bid to keep their children quiet during the day, while just over half have paid kids to convince them to finish their schoolwork.
Parents across the country have been forced to become makeshift teachers with the majority of children not able to go to school.
Respondents to the survey had also used cash to convince unruly offspring to get away from screens, go to bed on time and exercise outdoors.
Emma Abrahams, head of savings at Halifax, said: “Pocket money is a fantastic tool when it comes to teaching kids about money, even if the extra pennies are sometimes paid in a last ditch attempt to secure parent power.”
She said that parents should use the payments as an opportunity to kick-start conversations about money with their children and teach them about saving for the future.
The way children receive their pocket money has also changed with 69 per cent getting paid in cash, compared to 83 per cent in 2019. Almost a third of children now have pocket money paid directly into a bank account.
Meanwhile, the lockdown economic downturn has also hurt parents’ ability to pay pocket money, with 23 per cent having had to stop or reduce payments, Halifax said.
The survey was carried out in May and June and consisted of 550 parents and more than 1,000 children. The average weekly pocket money paid was £7.55.
