Credit-crazed youth ’saddled by debt’

Posted 2008-03-26

Young people are taking on unsustainable amounts of debt due to their obsession with credit, Scottish Widows has warned. The bank noted that parents of grown children are now giving their offspring an average of £12,500 in financial aid in order to keep them afloat. While commitments to full-time education account for much of young peoples financial emaciation, Scottish Widows savings expert Anne Young insisted that a prevailing pro-credit culture was also a major contributor. "A lot of children now are going into their working life with a lot of debt hanging over them, probably as a result of further education and student debts -but also its the proliferation of credit that is available now." She added: "I dont think we really do enough in educating our young people to manage their credit." Ms Young went on to say that the credit crunch will hasten a troubling wake-up call for many youngsters, with tightened lending criteria already taking a toll on mortgage and loan approvals. The Scottish Widows study said that four out of ten parents have justified giving money to their offspring on the grounds that "they needed it more than I did".

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