Adults 'bailed out' by mum and dad

Over 13 million parents paid out an average £2,480 to their adult children in 'loans and gifts' over the last 12 months, totalling £34 billion. The Guardian reports that parents spent £2.2 billion paying off their adult children's debt over the last year.

The Sainsbury's Finance figures indicate the biggest loans and gifts keep a roof over their grown-up kids' heads.

•£8.4 billion went on mortgage / rental deposits and payments.
•£3.5 billion went on home improvements.
•£1.6 billion went on tuition fees, digs and other student expenses.

The financial dependence on mum and dad is stretching into later years. Children aged between 35 and 39 received the most money - £11.4 billion over the last 12 months. More than a million parents helped out children over 45 - who received £2,437 on average - and 1.7 million adults in their early forties received £1,882 from their parents.

Young women appear to be financially needier than their male counterparts, although the figures suggest that men get needier as they enter their thirties. Female 'adult-dependants' between 18 and 29 borrowed £1,314 more than men the same age. However, women in their thirties only received £2,017 in the past year, compared with men in their thirties, who got £5,542.

The Guardian reported in 2010 that raising a child will set the average parent back by £200,000, from birth to graduation. As reliance on the 'bank of mum and dad' stretches further into adulthood, the cost of raising children could be considerably higher than that.