How much 'pocket money' for a 16yo girl?

[NCTDN]

I know this has been done lots, but what is the going rate? At the moment DD only gets £10 a month but we pay for most things. I know of others who get significantly more but are expected to pay for everything themselves. Please can you share your experiences?

my 15yo DS gets £25 per month but also gets his phone paid for, clothes and many other treats.

Mine got their child benefit aged 12 ... 1989
They had to buy their clothes
We bought school uniforms

My DS (13) gets £25 allowance paid into his account on 1st of every month. It's for his socialising, travel that isn't club related, gifts for friends and family, food that is extra to the budget we provide.

We also pay for his activities, phone, meals at school and any school or club related travel. We save a little for him too (into a pension though!)

He's not interested in clothes yet.

It doesn't go far if he wants to spend time with friends. He wouldn't get one return trip and a film every week for example so he has to budget.

Most of his allowance goes on gifts for his friends.

£10 a month seems a bit too little for a 16 year old girl. Is she earning any of her own money?

I see she is too busy to earn her own money.

I think you need to work out what the pocket money is "for" and then decide accordingly.

If it's to encourage self-sufficiency and pay for all her 16 year old needs then £10 won't go far, unless she's using a mooncup then that could all be spent on sanitary products.

Is it fun money? Clothes money? Personal care money? Food money? Travel money? School supplies money? Club money? Specialist equipment for sport money? Phone money? It all adds up.

It's a great way to open up an informative conversation.

Why don't you ask her and then negotiate?

She's very unsure as friends don't have allowances. I like the idea of a bigger allowance and she has to buy more herself and budgeting.

DD works - £8 an hour 8 hours a week in a Saturday

She pays for her phone, non essential clothes, buss fare and lunches etc

I think my parents give my brother (17) about £60 and he earns about £300 a month from his jobs. He works a a long glass collecting shift and in a cafe. His choice to work two jobs he loves earning money.

Budgeting is so important to learn... Definitely good to encourage her to buy more of her own items especially as she might be leaving home in 2 years!

We pay £160/month includes phones, clothing, socialising, lunches. One teen earns £160 per month on top of that, the other teen is struggling to get a PT job.

Where do they find part time jobs? There's none round here.

Look at individual sights

Books marks and Spencer’s new look etc

Check local cafes

Job Centre sometimes advertise

So do student sites

My DD who's nearly 16 gets £40 a month. I pay for her phone, toiletries, school lunch money etc. I buy most of her clothes/underwear/footwear but she usually spends her money on clothes too. I wish I had £40 a month to spend as I wish on myself!
I had a job from 13 and from that day on had to provide my own school lunches, clothes etc and even had to save up my own money if I wanted to continue to go on family holidays so think she's very lucky.

Mine got their child benefit aged 12 ... 1989

So did I. Its as £30 a month even then.

Mine are slightly older. They had an allowance to include clothes (except underwear and pjs). I paid for the phones as on family contract, driving lessons, toiletries from supermarkets, sanpro, school lunches etc.

The allowance was about £200 a month. It seemed to work and trained them to manage money. 1 has left uni with no overdraft and the other is in their 3rd year with no debts so far.

£100 per month which is a clothing allowance and for all going out spending. Phone paid for by me as are school lunches/ uniform
This teaches some responsibility around budgeting as child soon realises if he wants £150 trainers he has to save and go without something else

Jack all. We pay phone / lunches and bus pass and basic clothes.

Everything else they have a job for. Both worked from 13. Now earn 50-60 a week for 6 hours on a Saturday.

This is where I get confused, when I turned 16 all my pocket money stopped and I had to get a part time job and start paying my mum rent plus pay for all my essentials. Most people on here are saying about upping the money they give their DC at 16. When do they start paying rent etc? And do they pay it from the “allowance” they’re given?
Genuine question btw. I have a 15yo who gets £20 a month to pay for any treats for herself. She never goes out though and ends up being able to save most of that! I pay for everything essential. I wish she’d go out more but she’s not interested

TwattyX If you live in a big town getting a part time job might be easy at 16 (though not as easy as 30 years ago) but a lot of 16 year olds live in locations where getting to a part time job is impossible without your own transportation - the only bus that goes through our village is effectively a school bus (though technically a public bus) and only runs once per day in each direction, Monday to Friday... Nearest proper town is 15 miles away.

I never paid my parents rent (did A levels then didn't live with my parents after that, just visited for a week or so during university holidays). I won't charge my children rent while in full time education either, unless they are in full time education past the age of 24 as eternal students still living at home (there is a university town 40 miles away accessible by car and a lot of students do live at home as rents there are astronomical) - then I will!

The combination of not wanting to encourage offspring to leave school as early as possible and lack of part time job opportunities for teenagers mean I've never met anyone locally who charges a 16 year old rent.

I'd only charge rent and stop giving an allowance to my kids as teens if they leave school - to ensure they are motivated to find work! If they choose paid apprenticeships that's fine - I've already told them they won't get any money from us but we won't charge them for rent or food as long as they stick at the apprenticeship. They'll be better off financially doing an apprenticeship than staying at school but there are at least 2 college days per week on apprenticeships and they're hard going, so I wouldn't charge rent until they finish - or if they drop out to just work without the study element.

If you charge rent at 16 you're providing motivation to work as many hours as possible and stop studying.

@AgnesGrundy

We live in a small town / large village. Everyone on my daughters friends who wanted jobs at 13/14 + have got them.

Cafes, shops, pubs, hotels, the local small supermarket, care homes - pot washing etc.

And I could walk into the town today and plenty desperate for staff.

And plenty of similar villages locally. There is a tourism economy which helps.

My parents gave me my share of the family allowance when I was a teenager, at 16 (13 years ago I was getting £60 a month) I was expected to pay my own expenses, my parents still covered things like household stuff, bus fare for school etc but I was expected to pay for anything else, including learning to drive, clothes and presents for birthdays/Christmas.
I also worked 16 hours a week.

I live in a big town so it didn’t cross my mind that some people may not even be able to get to a part time job that easily.

I see your point about the motivation to work more to pay rent and stop studying. But then that only applies if you have a child who wants to study towards a chosen career. I left education at 16 (through choice, not because I had to pay rent ) and I earned far more than any of my friends who stayed in education could ever have imagined. Back then my salary was £26k when I was 18 which was a ridiculous amount!

It’s hard to know what to do for the best as times have changed. My DD hates school, hates education and I know she’ll be better off doing apprenticeship type learning as the classroom and studying just isn’t suited to her. I’ll just have to see how it pans out!

lovelyupnorth

Cafes, pubs shops, hotels, care homes = reasonably sized town in my book!

There are several small family farms (which don't even provide full time work for the families living on them) in our village and a couple who run a tax accounting firm from home... There are no shops or pubs let alone care homes, hotels and so on...

TwattyX I don't think university is necessarily the best path - everyone and their cat has a degree these days and it doesn't necessarily help that much unless you know what you want to do with it/ it's vocational, I agree. I want my children to get qualifications they can fall back on or build on though - which could be via a proper apprenticeship. Doing an apprenticeship curtails your earnings initially thoufh because you're at college 16+ hours per week as well as working in the field and studying at home, so obviously a 16 year old would earn more working full time hours without studying. Asking them for rent out of the apprenticeship salary rather than only if they give up/ when they finish might make giving up the college/ apprenticeship part too tempting!

I think the days of doing well without any post 16 qualifications at all (including without meaningful externally recognised vocational qualifications) are probably mostly gone.

DS(15) gets £10 a week. He also earns £25 a week waiting in the local pub.
We pay for his phone and we have family broadband / Deezer / Netflix etc which he has full access to. We buy all clothes, though he pays extra for big ticket items like DM boots. He gets lifts everywhere as we have no public transport.
His CB goes into a separate account and pays for music lessons, Explorer trips, extra bits of music equipment etc.

OP are Saturday jobs not a thing where you are? I had one from very early on.

If you have a cv and a good covering letter I'd be writing to/emailing to local businesses.

I earned a really decent amount working every Saturday. I saved up enough that I didn't get into debt when I was at university.

Round here (smallish city) all the big shops are currently recruiting extra staff for Christmas. Most won't accept CVs handed in or posted in, but you can apply via their websites. You'd need to hurry though, my dd's supermarket have just done a round of inductions for Christmas staff. And we saw the Primark ones having their inductions at the weekend. There may still be vacancies, of course.