Children come out tops in income stakes

MOST CHILDREN and some top managers have more in common in terms of their financial expectations than one might at first suspect. The earnings of both have risen comfortably faster than inflation in the past year, unlike nearly every other category in the population, writes Neasa MacErlean.

Pocket money payments to children aged 11 or under have climbed by 5.7 per cent in the past 12 months to pounds 1.48 - an average increase of 8p, according to the latest survey of its LittleXtra Club members by the Halifax Building Society.

As with company directors, regional variations are pronounced.

Children in Greater London fared best with an average weekly income of pounds 2 - incorporating a hefty 25 per cent rise since 1991. Children in the East are the worst off, earning only pounds 1.24 a week on average.

The highest payment recorded in the building society survey is of pounds 10 a week to a child whose identity remains undivulged.

Just over half of the 4,000 children who took part in the survey do some kind of work to earn some or all of their pocket money. Washing and drying dishes and making the bed are all big sources of employment.

Just over two thirds of the children surveyed save either all or some of their pocket money.

The Halifax believes that financial astuteness in maturity is often the result of an infancy characterised by financial common sense.

Jim Birrell, chief executive, said: 'We now have over 1 million LittleXtra Club members who, judging from the results of this survey, should grow up into financially aware adults.'