Should 16 year olds get pocket money or get a job?

[Dramatic]

My DD is 16, about to start a full time a level course at college (6th form) me and DH are having a slight disagreement on what money we should give her.

He's saying we should give her money for transport and food at college but nothing else and that if she wants any extras she should get a part time/Saturday job. I think we should still be giving her a bit of pocket money, say around £10-20 per week so she can go out with her friends, buy herself some little treats or whatever.

We still buy all her clothes/toiletries and essentials.

Who is BU?

As above. Job.

Mine both had a paper round at 13, DD worked in a chippy at 15 and her and DS were in well known retail stores at 16 until uni. They then worked through uni, DS in a petrol station and DD 50% placement on the healthcare course with bank shifts.

Both have never not got a job they really wanted and both have a great work ethic and lots of interview experience.

IMO, there are no benefits to delaying getting your foot on the employment ladder.

DS is 15. At the moment I’d rather he concentrated at school which hasn’t come easy to him sadly. He has two hobbies that he’s good at and those cover weekends, not every weekend though. He knows he’s good at those and those are giving him the confidence that school doesn’t. I’m in no rush to push him into a job when he turns 16 unless he wants to.

We give him money each month and pay for his phone. He is expected to do several jobs around the house in addition to the usual keeping your room tidy, dishwasher etc.

Definitely a job - very part time obviously.

Am I correct in thinking that if they are at college it's not a 9 to 5 timetable so there is study/HW time in the week?

If so, I think a job is beneficial for many reasons;

The work experience will teach them other skills plus look good on a CV. If I wad interviewing as an employer and 2 candidates had the same educational qualifications but one had work experience I would probably pick them if they were both suitable for the role.

Financially, I think it's good for them to have some responsibility for budgeting for things they want to buy/do.

It's also good to have a balance between studying and work.

One of mine had a part time job in a fast food chain restaurant - he didn't like it but it focused his mind to work towards something he did want to do.

We give our kids their child allowance from ages of 15 and they use that for socialising, clothes they want but not essential etc.
It is tricky though as my girls have both earned their own money either working or selling stuff on line, and our son has not. He got a Deliveroo job but had only managed one shift so far!! He is about to start Uni and we have been clear that we will not fund everything and that he will need to do a couple of evenings a week to top up his costs. However, he probably spends less generally than his sister's and his idea of leisure is a cycle ride or chess game so we are not having to constantly fork out. He also manages with far less clothes than the girls.

It really depends. I had one and it was probably a good thing for me. However my niece is about to start her a-levels wanting to do Vet Med and as it requires a lot of voluntary experience, she is leaving her weekends free to do this and has her first few all booked in. So, not paid work but I guess still has value.

@Dramatic
We don't live in a city, my DD had a 30 min bus and 15 min walk to get to her job. We have to prepare our kids for life not treat them as small children who need everything on their doorstep or parents doing it for them.

Both mine have had jobs. Ds16 has a job easter to November and has worked a shift every day during the holidays. He is saving for a car. We will give him money for bus pass, food and a bit extra. We pay for essentials but if he wants more expensive trainers then he adds in the rest. He opened his own savings account and is really good with money. He did not work during the bulk of his exams this year, it would have bern too much. He is lucky to have a lovely employer.

What's her college timetable like? If she's in similar to school hours with an hour commute either end, i wouldn't really expect her to then to go out to work afterwards. If she's working weekends, I'd want to facilitate travel as much as possible - an hour each way on an 8 he shift is a whole day gone.

She could look if there's jobs near college week days if she could manage it but I'd Def give her a basic rate of pocket money

I agree with your husband.

My 16 year old picks up a few shifts at a local cafe, but I don’t want her working too much as she gets into A levels. They’ll all be working until they are at least 68, there’s no rush!!

Some 16 year olds simply aren't ready or capable of work.

Personally I think if people are still claiming child benefit or perhaps in receipt of child support then pocket money should be paid where possible.

I'd rather they concentrate on their A levels.

I agree with this. I’m fairly generous, DC earns £150-200 a month and I match it.

I also buy clothes, phone, toiletries etc.

I also wouldn’t want them working too much. A level study is the most important thing they can do this year imo.

When I was at school in the 70s we had part time jobs from about 14 . I had more available cash than when I started work (full time ) at 16 and had to give my
mum some board. My parents had little spare cash so my part time jobs allowed me to buy clothes and make up.

Do you get CB? My mum didn’t know it was a ‘thing’ until I was about 16 (!!) and therefore just gave that amount to me monthly to cover my bits and pieces myself. Was actually pretty sensible with it as kids go. Covered bus rides, snacks at college, seeing friends, the odd clothing item and my phone top up.
I would probably do the same (although saying that, CB will likely have been scrapped by then).

DS got a job when he was 16. But it's a zero hours so he doesn't have to commit to every Saturday for example and it's related to what he wants to do.

Outside of that I pay for his phone and during term time he gets £10 per week for snacks at school. Plus I buy basic clothes (M&S) and school shoes/suits/toiletries and haircuts but stuff he wants he pays for himself.

I agree it's worth whole for them to get a job but it's not easy under 18. DS is the youngest at his place and they don't often take under 18s as they want them all to be able to work the bar.

Obviously it depends on your families financial circumstances. I largely take the view your teenager/young adult years are for studying and having fun.
Time is much better invested studying for A-levels rather then a poor paid job.
I did some volunteering to add to my UCAS statement at that age, but nothing really paid.

When DD went in to VI form the head of VI gave a talk and recommended that, if they did get a job, they did not do more than 8 hours a week because more than that could damage their grades.

In lower VI DD did a voluntary role one afternoon a week (they had Wednesday afternoons off for things like this) then she got a paid job one, sometimes two, evenings a week in upper VI.

We still paid for all the necessary and gave her a small amount of pocket money.

As much as anything the job was for something on her CV. It was also useful because in her holidays from Uni they asked her to work their part time as holiday cover.

Mine had both. All essentials paid, a little bit of pocket money from me to buy sixth form clothes, treats etc and a part time job.
My 17 year old is now year 13 and loves her little job and studies hard

And the eldest who had the same, all essentials, pocket money and a job and is now twenty doing a degree. She's managed both well

DD had both. One thing that was tricky was that for waitressing in our area (which DD did) they quite often sent them home or cancelled shift at short notice so they didn’t get paid the £5.49 per hour. Other times they would keep the younger ones later to finish up because they were cheaper….

It's really difficult to get a job where I live aged 16. Employers want complete flexibility, there are lots of semi retired people willing to take those jobs and give flexibility throughout the week. Combine that with the fact that although we are very close to a (admittedly very run down) city there are no buses after 5.30pm in the evening and none on a Saturday/Sunday.

I gave ds £12 per week pocket money and provided phone, travel to college and college lunches. Anything he managed to earn was on top of that.

Personally I'd say you should give her pocket money but if she wants 'big ticket items' like video games or posh makeup or whatever, then a job on top would help to fund luxuries.

As a 16 year old I had a Saturday job but no allowance.

My kids all still had pocket money when at 6th form, £40 per month. They had to buy all but basic clothes themselves, although we also provided school lunches, transport, phones etc.

They all had a weekend job, one was a football referee, the others worked in a cafe. Usually just one day a week for 5 hours, and the odd extra shift in school holidays. It was a good balance, as it didn't take up all their time, but did provide enough money for them to go out, buy non-essential clothes etc. The cafe worked out very well, as they were kept on full-time after they finished A-levels, during a year out before uni.

£100 per month plus a bus pass and they can take a packed lunch from home. £100 would be for anything they want, new clothes, shoes, make up….

I never made my DS get a job at that age because he had enough to do with studying for his exams. He did get a summer job though in a pub.