Parents raid school funds to make ends meet

Parents are withdrawing cash set aside to pay for their offspring's education just to make ends meet, according to research out today.

Three out of five parents said they had raided funds which had been set up either to pay for private education or see their children through university. When asked why they had withdrawn the cash, more than half (56 per cent) said it had been to meet rising cost of living expenses.

Schroders, the firm that commissioned the research, said the findings, if mirrored around the UK, would mean that 2.7 million parents had dipped into reserves. Pollsters ICM contacted justmore than 2,000 adults for the survey.

Typically, they had withdrawn a third of their savings with one in five saying they were unable to pay it back. The researchers also estimated a further two million people will still be paying of £2.4 billion annually to educate their children despite the economic gloom.