20th February 2020

FAMILIES RELYING HEAVILY ON GRANDPARENTS FOR FREE CHILDCARE

For many families, childcare is a significant expense that often eats a good chunk out of their monthly income. It’s no surprise then, that many parents are turning to their own parents for help. Recent research1 shows that 85% of grandparents offer some kind of support with childcare, spending an average eight hours a week taking care of their grandchildren.

With grandparents saving families an astonishing £22 billion per year – an average of £4,027 per family, they really are worth their weight in gold!

YOU COULD LOSE THOUSANDS OF POUNDS BY NOT DOING ONE SIMPLE THING

Insurance firm Aviva has warned that pension savers could lose up to £10,000 simply by failing to update their default retirement age with their pension provider.2

This is due to a process called de-risking, whereby your pension provider moves your money from higher to lower risk funds as you approach retirement. Because higher risk funds will typically offer higher returns, you could lose out to the tune of thousands if the de-risking process is triggered early (e.g. because the default age on your pension scheme is set at 63 rather than 68).

1SunLife, 2019
2Aviva, 2019