How much rent to charge 18 year old?

[TakeALookAtTheseSwatches]

My daughter left college last year and started looking for a job, she started working just after Christmas. She works part time hours and her take home pay per month is around £900. She's putting £50 in to a lifetime ISA and she has no other bills (I currently still pay her phone contract which is about £30 a month)

We provide all her food, she eats tea with us and we have breakfast things/snacks in the house. She doesn't usually eat dinner but will sometimes buy herself a meal deal if she wants something.

So what would be reasonable? I was thinking around £200 a month and I'm happy to put £50 of that in her lifetime ISA too if she wants. She is saving up for a car so isn't spending frivolously. Is £200 too much?

Yeah a voice of reason! I’ve always charged my over 18s. Life isn’t a free ride , I’m in my mid fifties when I started working I started paying my way . Let’s face it it was heavily subsidised.

I charge I charge £260 every payday. Includes heat electric food internet phone ( I got a good deal on the plan) I make no money from it . It teaches them the value of money and my kids are excellent savers!
I recently looked at what people are charging for studio flats etc omfg they get a damn good deal.

However, if I was well off yes I would still charge them but save the money for them. Not to be spent on anything frivolous but for something with meaning car blah blah.

Why o why do parents set their children up to fail as soon as they start earning a bit of money, and especially at such a young and tender age? If you want your child to succeed don't do this. Instead teach them how to save for the future, then they might have a shot at success. Listing every scrap of food they eat and putting a monetary value to it is crass. Your her mother for pity sake, do better!

It definitely won’t happen anyway. The government make it clear that adult children are meant to contribute to the household expenses.

How is it making money out of their children if the adult offspring are paying for a share of their costs? It's pretty common, and has been for generations, for adult children in this country to pay keep when they start working. Many people who move to another country to work send money back to their families when they don't even live in the same country any more, let alone in the same home.

God your child's future ruined because Mummy has to make money. Decent parents simply don't do this.

That's would definitely help in my house. We'd all be homeless!

I don't "make" any money from what the DC pay me. I have less coming in than I did when I claimed CB and UC for them.

Many people who move to another country to work send money back to their families when they don't even live in the same country any more, let alone in the same home.

very true, and they are proud to do so.

No they don’t.

DH is Spanish and he says extended families would literally stage an intervention if parents tried to charge DC ‘rent’. It would be absolutely shameful.

Spain has a much more family-centric culture, higher life satisfaction and much fewer mental health issues.

Yes they do. Have you ever read the universal credit guidance notes and how things like the bedroom tax works.? Or seen how student finance for those living in the family home works.

The fact it’s pretty common in this country doesn’t make it right. It is abhorrent and the UK is an outlier in this sense globally.

Thankfully it looks like the tide is turning going by this thread.

Many parents aren't making money though The adult offspring are still costing more than they contribute

OMG that was an absolute fortune for then. I can't believe you earned enough to hand that over. That must have been tough?

There is an interesting article in the ST today about adult children living at home. Very middle
class which ties in with what previous poster said about charging children is mainly a working class thing/ mentality.

I can’t get my head around the posters who save fo their children. What is that teaching them? Are they not able to save themselves?

I don't think of it as 'rent'. My dc aren't that age yet, but when I was younger and living at home and working full time (which wasn't for long as I moved out at 20), I would have been embarrassed to not contribute anything. We're a working class family - my parents worked very hard to ensure my sister and I didn't go without throughout our childhoods. The thought of earning money and just sitting there keeping it all to myself while living in my parents' house as an adult was just... no. That would have been wrong. Aren't these 'adult kids' embarrassed to be freeloading off their parents? Not yours OP, I mean some of the others mentioned on this thread. We agreed an amount of 'keep' - it was to cover my share of the food and bills etc. As an adult.

We always suggested save a third, spend a third and pay the remaining third to parents as rent...always seemed fair all round

They are not freeloading though. They are living with parents who can well afford to support them on their way to independence and will probably be home owners and independent way before the kids who have to “pay keep”.

Btw - I completely understand the parents who just cannot afford to pay the bills and need help.

If they’re working full-time, they can save hard AND financially contribute. Plenty of people do it. You know, the ones who aren’t leeching.

That meets the definition of 'freeloading', I'm afraid.

Please explain how she is ruining her child's future. What a ludicrous statement. She isn't 'making money' off her kids- that money simply covers their living expenses.

Congratulations, you win the award for most bonkers comment on this thread. It's not 'money grabbing' to expect grown adults with wages to contribute towards the food and bills.

Exactly.

Some parents have better business acumen though. They’re hoping to fund their retirement from offspring contributions. Whatever happened to helping out family members because they’re family, and not so you can gain financially from them?

Then I am happy for mine to “free load”
off me and help them towards a secure future and owning their own home. I can’t well afford it. I don’t need my children’s money.

Id imagine very few are doing that though

This is what the well off people don't seem to get. Many of these posts are looking from a very privileged point of view saying they would never charge adult kids. Wonder what would happen if they became disabled and husband fucked off, would they starve so young adults can't have lots of spare money