Parents' £30,000 cost of helping 'adult children'

The average parent expects to hand over 30,690 to their child during this period, covering everything from university tuition fees, to the deposit for a house, to day-to-day living expenses.

Around 93 per cent of parents with children aged over 18 said they were still providing them with some form of financial support, according to The Children's Mutual.

Parents were most likely to be helping out their children with general living costs at 48 per cent, while 40 per cent let them live at home for free or for a reduced rent and 32 per cent were helping them with their bills.

Three out of 10 parents were paying university fees, 20 per cent had covered the cost of a wedding, 15 per cent had provided a deposit for a house and 14 per cent were repaying their child's debt.

But the burden of supporting their adult children is having a

significant impact on parents' finances, with 28 per cent having to remortgage to cover the cost, while more than half have had to borrow money.

Two-thirds of parents also said they had or planned to reduce their day-to-day living costs, with 28 per cent spending less on food and 42 per cent trying to use less gas and electricity, while 7 per cent claim they have been forced to sell their car.

More than half of parents said if they had known what a drain their adult child would be on their finances they would have saved more, with just 13 per cent saying they had regularly set aside money to cover the cost.

David White, chief executive of The Children's Mutual, said: "No longer does turning 18 mean financial independence – in fact 16 per cent of parents questioned expected their child to remain financially dependent on them into their thirties and beyond."