PARENTS with children in their late teens are holding off on retirement and making other major lifestyle sacrifices to ensure they have enough money to give their brood a leg up on to the property ladder when they reach adulthood, according to new research.

A survey has found that Scottish parents of teenagers aged under 18 are preparing to compromise their own lifestyle by dipping into their pension pots and their home equity to help out their children and grandchildren.

The study, by pollsters YouGov for market researchers Brewin Dolphin, found that 34 per cent of all parents in Scotland believe that in their lifetime they will have to contribute somewhere between £25,000 and £100,000 per child in order to cover home deposits, university fees and other living expenses.

All in all, 33 per cent of all parents believe that being the 'Bank of Mum and Dad' will compromise their own lifestyle, and eight per cent think they will need to downsize their own home in order to release equity.

Stephen Martin, head of Brewin Dolphin in Glasgow, said: "The Bank of Mum and Dad is facing its own financial crisis across the country.

"Our planners are finding increasing numbers of anxious clients facing demands from their children who cannot get on the property ladder or who need financial help with other areas of their lives. "The pressure is such that we're also seeing the emergence of second generation funding from the 'Bank of Grandma & Granddad'.

"People who are in their 30s and 40s now will generally not be able to generate the pension pots their parents did, and this survey shows a worrying trend towards parents needing to choose between helping their children and sacrificing their retirement savings."