Financial Support for Adult Children in Australia

Financial gifts from parents to children appear to amount to large sums in the wealthier industrialised nations, but little is known about these intergenerational transfers in Australia. This paper reports some preliminary research into parental attitudes to such transfers and finds the level of parental education is closely linked to the giving of financial gifts. Interestingly, philosophical support for financial assistance to adult children is found to be not directly linked to income or wealth. However, belief in supporting adult children during the years of higher education is linked to education, occupation, income and wealth of the parents. Regarding the question of whether financial support changes the economic behaviour of recipients, the data suggest that recipients are more likely to be savers than non-recipients. Moreover, the only statistically significant demographic difference between savers and non-savers among recipients is annual income, with a higher proportion of the non-savers having low (Children, Parent