Parents ‘tightening their lending criteria’

Parents around the UK are tightening their lending criteria as the impact of the credit crunch continues to be felt, according to a new report.

Axa Insurance insists that millions of mums and dads around the country are getting tougher on their children as they aim to save money and ease their own debt management problems.

Many teenagers have found that they can no longer borrow money from their parents, while others have seen their pocket money levels dwindle in recent months as household budgets continue to feel the strain.

Alison Green from Axa said: “The Bank of Mum and Dad has so far been quiet on the issue of how it will deal with the effects of the credit crunch.

“But now it has come out and shown teenagers have been hit hard.”

An increasing number of Britons are taking on debt management burdens in their teens and the problems associated with going into the red are “endemic”, the Rainer charity group claimed earlier this year.

By Giles Stevenson