Brass in pocket

DO eight-year-olds learn good money management if they are given a weekly allowance from which they must save a little and buy both necessary items and the little extras of their choice?

Should teenagers be given £50 or £60 a month from which to pay for bus fares, cinema tickets, snacks and whatever else they require? Or should parents pay for all the necessities, giving their sons and daughters minimal amounts simply to have cash in emergencies instead of having larger sums at their disposal?

When to start giving children pocket money and how much to give at what age are perennial problems for parents. Peer pressure from other children who are getting larger amounts can be particularly difficult for parents on tight financial budgets.

Tony Humphreys, clinical psychologist, believes that it is important to give children pocket money. "One of the purposes of parenting is to help children to be self reliant and independent and giving them pocket money helps them learn to manage their own resources. The earlier you start the better. I think children should get pocket money from age six or seven when they begin to understand the value of money.

Fionnuala Kilfeather, co-ordinator of the National Parents Council - Primary agrees that giving children pocket money is a good idea, provided it is done in a sensible way.

"Pocket money gives children a sense of responsibility for spending money. It helps them understand that they have to save for certain things and that they can't have everything immediately," she says.

It helps their decision-making skills and teaches them how to share in that they learn to save up pocket money to buy presents for other members of the family. However, you do sometimes see children with silly amounts of money. If you give a nine or 10-year-old £10, what will you do when they are 16?"

One father of three says that his 17-year-old daughter gets £65 a month (from which she has to pay for bus fares, discos, cinema tickets, school lunches, etc), his 13-year-old son gets £25 a month and his eight-year-old son gets £5 a month pocket money.

"We find that the eldest budgets her pocket money very well and even manages to buy clothes occasionally with it, while the 13-year-old bums off us all the time. The eight-year-old saves some of it and spends the rest.

"In general, I do think pocket money trains children to manage money and helps them to learn its value. Our children also have to contribute towards larger presents we buy for them from their pocket money," he says.

Humphreys adds that parents should not be over-invasive about how their children use their pocket money.

"You can give them guidelines and you can ask them what they want to do with it without telling them what to do, so as they learn self control. The freedom of having money goes hand in hand with responsibility. If the child spends his or her money irresponsibly, maybe a parent could withdraw the pocket money from the child and buy things for him or her for a while and then try again.

"However, if they spend their pocket money all at once, you shouldn't give them any more until the following week. Sometimes one parent gives a child money behind the other parent's back. This is not a good idea because it means that they are colluding with the child's irresponsibility rather than upholding the system of responsibility within the family," adds Humphreys.

Elizabeth Quinn of the National Association for Parents Support (NAPS) says that pocket money is a very "live" issue for NAPS members. "The issue of pocket money is particularly relevant at the moment as we are wondering what the fall out will be from Eithne Fitzgerald's bill on teenager working hours (The Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Bill 1996)," she explains.

"Many teenagers are used to getting a certain amount from their parents and earning the rest. Most parents will try their best to give their children whatever the average pocket money in the area is so as the children don't feel left out. However, if there are financial problems parents should explain that they can't give their children as much pocket money. Once children know what's happening, they can be very reasonable," says Quinn.

Nuala Henry, president of the National Parents Council - Post Primary suggests that it can be dangerous for teenagers to have too much pocket money. "Every day, we see children from 12 years and upwards smoking and we are told that some of them have money to buy alcohol.

"Obviously, they have to have pocket money. It is dangerous not to have any money to make a phone call or whatever but parents should keep pocket money at a modest level. I prefer to give teenagers money for specific events like discos and then, give them about £1 a day as well.

Using pocket money as a means of getting children to do jobs around the house is one strategy used by some parents. However, monitoring such chores can be more hassle than it is worth according to one parent of two teenagers. "I do find that the withdrawal of pocket money can be used as an effective form of punishment," she comments.

One fear expressed by Quinn is that when pocket money is withdrawn younger children may tend to pilfer from mummy's purse if it is left within their reach.

"Stealing small amounts of money from parents is a fairly common childhood phenomenon as children haven't yet worked out the morality of such actions. Parents should just be aware that this may happen and learn to deal with it," she cautions.