Must-know money: one in four parents helping kids with the mortgage

Here are our favourite money stories this week to help you get your head around your personal finances

From parents helping kids to pay the mortgage, to the launch of a universal basic income trial in the UK and why the Chancellor is telling consumer watchdogs to crack down on price hikes, here are our favourite personal finance stories this week.

One in four parents helping kids with the mortgage

Nearly one in four parents are helping out their children with mortgage payments, Madeleine Ross writes in The Telegraph.

The so-called Bank of Mum and Dad, with assets over £250,000, are supporting mortgage costs, while 79% help with other everyday costs for their kids, according to research from advice firm Saltus Wealth.

Mike Stimpson of Saltus Wealth commented: “Traditionally, parents have helped out their children with deposits on houses, and other investments that grow with them, but now, we’re increasingly seeing clients forced to bring those investments forward to help their children with everyday costs such as mortgages and household bills.”

With mortgage costs soaring as the base rate rises, Ross spoke to a single mum Kate, who has received help from her parents, although so far hasn’t had to ask for help with her loan payments. Another young homeowner, Sophie, says she and her husband are struggling to pay mortgage and childcare costs as their mortgage payments increase.

UK universal basic income trial launches

A trial of ‘universal basic income’ or UBI has launched in the UK, Simon Wilson writes for MoneyWeek. Thinktank Autonomy is running the trial in which participants will be given £1,600 every month with no strings attached for two years.

Just 30 people will be part of the trial, with one group in Jarrow, Tyneside, while the other is based in East Finchley, north London. The trial will cost £1.5 million over the two-year period, but this pales into insignificance compared to the £1 trillion annual cost were it to be applied to the entire UK.

Commenting on the trial, director of Autonomy Will Stronge says: “Our society is going to require some form of basic income in the coming years, given the tumult of climate change, tech disruption and industrial transition that lies ahead. This is why building the evidence base and public engagement now is so important.”

Wilson adds dozens of countries have trialled UBI but most have found that the income didn’t encourage most participants into work but improved other factors such as wellbeing, confidence and life satisfaction.

Chancellor urges regulators to crack down on price hikes

With inflation continuing to hurt households and push up interest rates, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has asked major consumer regulators to crack down on excessive profiteering, James Tapsfield writes in the Daily Mail.

Hunt has also warned supermarkets to pass on falling costs to customers as international prices fall for consumer staples such as food.

Tapsfield writes that Hunt is looking to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate food costs as concerns mount that companies are hiking costs for consumers just to take advantage of the situation.

Utility companies have rebutted Hunt’s warning however, saying prices are now beginning to fall for customers, despite high headline rates of inflation from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) persisting.

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