To think this isn’t that common? Or do people keep it to themselves?

I think that in some families it happens that the parents are in a good financial position. They have some money to spare so they can afford to help their adult kids.
One of my friends was given a deposit for her 1st home over 20 years ago but she had savings and a good job herself. Having this house give her options down the line.
Another couple I know got a large lump sum to enable them to move into forever family home. In effect one set of parents give them their inheritance early so the could do this.

I think that people need to be aware that their friends parents might not be in the same financial position. The person who tells everyone I just bought a house but forget to say I got x amount from my parents to do this. Meanwhile there friends are struggling and finding it hard to listen to this.

If you are getting or have gotten some financial help in the past I would be careful to who you tell. Some people will just be jealous of this fact. Then some people will gossip about you and the fact that you can afford more than you did in the past.

I think that in some families it happens that the parents are in a good financial position. They have some money to spare so they can afford to help their adult kids.
One of my friends was given a deposit for her 1st home over 20 years ago but she had savings and a good job herself. Having this house give her options down the line.
Another couple I know got a large lump sum to enable them to move into forever family home. In effect one set of parents give them their inheritance early so the could do this.

I think that people need to be aware that their friends parents might not be in the same financial position. The person who tells everyone I just bought a house but forget to say I got x amount from my parents to do this. Meanwhile there friends are struggling and finding it hard to listen to this.

If you are getting or have gotten some financial help in the past I would be careful to who you tell. Some people will just be jealous of this fact. Then some people will gossip about you and the fact that you can afford more than you did in the past.

It is eye opening some of the sums that are not considered large but would be life changing to many.

No not really, my grandmother is 93 and very well off, she recently told me she has “an awful lot of money accumulating” and she didn’t know what to do with it all. She didn’t offer any of it to me despite me being a single parent struggling on a low income so who knows what she intends to do to solve her ‘problem’!

I would feel very uncomfortable accepting a large amount of money from anyone, even a family member. My mum likes to give me £20 for ‘petrol’ when I go to visit her which I do accept as I know it makes her happy!

I've had some, the biggest being £25k, £20k and £10k, but all were for a reason (e.g. car, house deposit). I've had a few gifts of £5k and under but didn't consider that to be out of the ordinary as it was mainly small inheritances, one from a very distant relative. They aren't gifted regularly, just here and there. There's every chance it will never happen again which is fine, it's never been expected.
DP and I will inherit large sums in future, however it will be when our parents pass away so we are really hoping it isn't for a very long time.

I share a business building with a solicitors office. One of the girls told me recently that every single young person (without exception) this year, who has been in for conveyancing, has had help from the. All of mum and dad, or grandparents. My parents have 'helped me out' over the years, as have some friends' parents. None of our families are what I would consider rich, (all non-privately educated), the common denominator was we just had dads with good jobs, who had also inherited moderate sums and invested. My greatest pleasure in life is to pay for things for my (now adult) kids so I hope to carry on the family ways but I'm not personally wealthy and live a simple life out of choice.

My parents gifted a large contribution to me and my sibling when we purchased our first property. We are Asian background where perhaps it’s more common? My parents wanted to see us benefit from it. I think it’s not so rare in London where even with a high combined salary, you need generational wealth to get on the property ladder (contributions vary). I don’t speak about it in real life but it is fairly obvious because we live in a nice area in London and I have told some close friends it’s partly due to family help (luck). We both have professional jobs but would not be able to afford the property we have without the help.

I plan to pass it down to my daughter but won’t tell her ahead of time. If you’re raising child(ren) in London, I think it’s nice if finances allow to think about helping your children onto the property
ladder, otherwise they may be priced out of London.

I've never had a penny from my parents (the golden children who are my brothers have had money thrown at them) and I won't get anything once they go (I'm nc)

My lovely inlaws bought us a house and since we lost darling fil,my mil sends us £2.5k every year to lower her tax bill and because she can

Dp will inherit the lot when she goes (that will be the worst day of our lives,we dont want her money,we'd rather have her) as his sister died 20 years ago so he's now an only child

We are unbelievably grateful to her

£1.5 k a year is loose change compared to the ambition dampening amounts people are referring to though

I think it’s more common than people realise. (Not me - poor family and I’m the poorest in my friendship group) but I have friends/family who plead poverty or will talk about how hard they’ve worked to buy a big house etc without mentioning they’ve benefited from large sums of money via inheritance or the death of a spouse. It’s their business though and I can understand why they don’t talk about it more openly.

I’ll a couple of £100k from inheritance from parents/inlaws, but that (hopefully) won’t be for many many years ahead. I’ve never been gifted anything other than £5k for my wedding from my dad.

I think in a lot of cases it's obvious from lifestyle that people must be getting extra financial help - and the most likely source is parents/grandparents.

People being able to afford to buy large houses or things like private education despite modest salaries (or even one parent not working) usually are a big give away.

@LoobyDop, When I was buying a flat, it cost 190K and my gf and I needed 38K deposit. I had saved up and my parents added thousands then meant we had enough. That place is now worth 550K.
I think the point is that it is not people being failures or others being special when they do these things. Increasingly labour is cheap and people relying on selling their labour will lose out.

My parents gave us £100k to pay off our mortgage and give me £6k a year, plus paying DS school fees.
I don’t talk about it!

I’ve had this a few times, but I’ve never discussed it with anyone. Why would you? People would quite reasonably think it was in poor taste and wonder what you hoped to achieve by sharing it.

I see your point that's it's maybe not as uncommon as some people might think, but the majority of people aren't keeping hush hush about this totally normal and common thing so the bottom 1% don't get jelly.

Oh I'd say MOST people we know receive a lump or two like that at some point.
We never have and there's none on the cards for us at any point unfortunately!
We know many people who have been given £100k because dad sold the business, or £50k because granny died, or £80k because you may as well have it now rather than later.
My ex was one of 4 boys and each was given £100k towards their first home.
Such is life I guess 🙈 I'm very bitter and very jealous and not afraid to admit it.

I’ve never been gifted a penny and won’t be either. My mum lives off a state pension in a housing association home. If she needs a large bill paying or a new appliance, my siblings and I pool together to help her.
My siblings have/will receive an inheritance from their husbands’ families, but my DP’s mum is in the same situation as mine, so we will never receive a penny.
I am saving to put towards my mum’s funeral, I already had to contribute towards my dad’s, my brother’s and my own daughter’s…
I genuinely can’t imagine the amazing difference it would make to my life to receive an inheritance or a gift of family money. Completely unimaginable.

Nothing from family although we have bought a small flat which we rent out - it is for our child eventually - they have SEN and it is unlikely that they will be in a position to buy themselves something. But this way we know they will have a place of their own. We did this in mind that should we require care our home might have to be sold for this. So this their security.

Maybe your friend thinks it's normal, for her.

I know one person who receives gifts of money, from their relative.

My oldest friend often gives gifts of money to their relatives.

Both givers and recipients are from relatively working class/lower middle class backgrounds. Both givers are very wealthy. One has told me they do it to avoid future inheritance tax.

I make no comment here on if this is justifiable.

I was responding to devilskitchen 🤷‍♀️

well details matter :-)

Alright sweetheart. I’m talking about the 50-100k a year my friends are given, not £1200. Sensitive much?

Thank you DevilsKitchen - good to know!