Parents working on to support adult children

PARENTS in Britain are being forced to postpone their retirement to meet the rising costs of supporting their adult offspring, a new study suggests today.

Research by the Children's Mutual found more than half (57 per cent) of parents with 18 to 30-year-olds quizzed said they had "no choice" but to retire later.

Four in ten expected to work up to five years longer than desired due to the financial burden of their "adult" children.

Nearly one in ten (9.3 per cent) of the 1,484 parents questioned in January believed they would now be forced to work more than a decade longer, with some abandoning the dream of retiring altogether.

About three-quarters of parents originally planned to retire before they reached 65, but 40 per cent have accepted they will not stop work before the "official" retirement age.

Some 79 per cent of parents claimed their ability to save for their retirement had been affected by unplanned financial support needed by their offspring – with a third suggesting it had been significant. David White, chief executive of the Child Trust Fund, said: "Worryingly, the number getting caught in this middle-age parent trap will almost certainly continue to rise.

"However, parents of today's youngsters can start to plan financially from the outset of having children and in so doing extricate themselves from this cycle. It's clear that the concept of a retirement age will become increasingly fluid and for some it might even become totally irrelevant.

"It is imperative that we empower parents of today's youngsters to ensure that their retirement dreams and the hopes for their offspring are not compromised."

White added: "Parents of today's young adults face an unenviable choice – secure their retirement or fund their children's futures."