How much pocket money to give your children is a difficult question. Lisa Salmon offers guidance

RECENT research by the Nationwide Building Society found that while children get an average of £31.64 pocket money per month (over £7 a week), some parents spend another £108.22 per child per month on items such as mobile phone credit, make-up, music downloads, sports clubs and extracurricular lessons.

Interestingly, it also revealed that older parents are much less generous than their younger counterparts.

Psychologist Dr David Lewis, author of How to Be a Gifted Parent, explains: “The main reason for this is most likely the differences in their own childhood experiences and expectations.

“Often with age and maturity comes greater confidence in parenting skills, and less willingness to be taken on a guilt trip by demanding youngsters.”

Whatever amount of pocket money you give to your children though, handing something over is important in helping kids learn financial lessons for life, as Tracey Bleakley, chief executive of the Personal Finance Education Group, points out.

Pocket money can be a terrific way to help children learn about money from an early age,” she says.

She suggests a good way of teaching children the value of money is to link an allowance to completed chores around the home. But she stresses: “If you do this, it’s important to be consistent – so if a chore goes unfinished or isn’t done properly, they shouldn’t get the whole amount.”

While most parents will cave in to pester power at some stage, Bleakley believes this can be used as another opportunity to help children develop good financial habits.

“Setting savings challenges – if they really want something special, ask them to work out how long they’ll need to save their pocket money to be able to pay for it.”