What age to stop Pocket Money ?

I was just thinking about this and something occurred to me. If you don't work when studying for your A-levels then move out to go to uni, the experience is an even bigger jump (I assume the loan won't fully support a half-decent student life). You have the whole experience of being in a new environment then you need to deal with starting work. I guess you could start work when you settle in but it still makes it more of a jump.

Column Matrix, sorry to be anal but can you please not use capitals every letter.
 
Angus-Higgins said:
(There are other reasons for me not getting/being able to get, with ease a job, however I will not enter into that discussion at the present time).

Angus Higgins
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Pal, if you speak to people in the real world like you do on here, then I am not surprised. You sound like Mr Logic from the Viz.

Honestly a few hours a week spent working is a wholly positive experience. Meet people, have fun and get paid. A levels are not that difficult that every waking hour needs to be devoted to them, unless you are one of those that is actually pretty obtuse, and have to work excessively hard to get good grades.

I think that the summer that someone leaves school is the right time for them to get a part time job (paper round beforehand), work f/t over the summer and then reduce hours at sixth form.
 
Alan! said:
W
Give the kid a break. He'll more than likely end up working into his 70's the way things are going.
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My point exactly. He's still a kid, why expect him to work for slave labour wage, whilst going at college, and therefore having no social life?:rolleyes:
 
Some of you are being completely stupid about this.

At 16 which is only a couple of years ago for me, I worked at tescos 8 hours on saturday and 7 on sunday. That was whilst doing chemistry, biology, physics and Geography A/AS level courses full time.

I earnt about £2-300 a month and still had all the time I needed for study, free time, going out etc. I also did swimming lessons, and played in various classical music groups on top of that.

Before that, I started doing a paper round every day bar sunday since i was 13 for about £20 a week.

You can have a social life whilst working and at college! Just because you work doesn't mean you instantly lose it. It wasn't hard or anything and I wasn't constantly tired.
A weekend job doesn't affect you dramatically.

anyway, to the OP:

Pocket money for me stopped when......well when I forgot I needed it and didn't ask for it any more. If they get a job, they won't need it. Simple as. So unless he does a LOT of extra curricular activities such as music or sports etc then ask him nicely to work weekends or something.
 
Alan! said:
What a surprise this thread has turned into

"i used to get up three hours before I went to bed and work in t' pit for 28 hours and pay owner for privilege"

Give the kid a break. He'll more than likely end up working into his 70's the way things are going.
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Agreed and to the OP -don't plan on having any more kids anytime soon as you obviously can't be bothered supporting them :)
 
justinwilkin said:
Some of you are being completely stupid about this.

At 16 which is only a couple of years ago for me, I worked at tescos 8 hours on saturday and 7 on sunday. That was whilst doing chemistry, biology, physics and Geography A/AS level courses full time.

I earnt about £2-300 a month and still had all the time I needed for study, free time, going out etc. I also did swimming lessons, and played in various classical music groups on top of that.

Before that, I started doing a paper round every day bar sunday since i was 13 for about £20 a week.

You can have a social life whilst working and at college! Just because you work doesn't mean you instantly lose it. It wasn't hard or anything and I wasn't constantly tired.
A weekend job doesn't affect you dramatically.

anyway, to the OP:

Pocket money for me stopped when......well when I forgot I needed it and didn't ask for it any more. If they get a job, they won't need it. Simple as. So unless he does a LOT of extra curricular activities such as music or sports etc then ask him nicely to work weekends or something.
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Spot on! I worked in a pub and had the best time of my life, meeting two of my very good mates now and played rugby which culminated in us winning a national comp at twickenham with the college rugby still team and went to the 99p student thursday most weeks.

Working is not going to ruin a college kid.
 
dark_shadow said:
No, it's perfectly reasonable to expect him to work his own way from now.

I did it and so did many others. Does he get EMA?
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He's not entitled to EMA as the combined household income is way over the maximum they set which i think is total crap as the money is for the student not the parents and suposed to be an insentive for the student.
 
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Moses99p said:
How many hours though?

What subjects is he doing? some subjects require a fair bit of work, some are a pathetically easy at A Level.

and how much do you currently give him?

If you asked his tutors they'd say it's better for him to work a little as possible.
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Hes doing English Literature/Language. History. Government and politics.
He doesnt get a great deal of pocket money but he spends his evenings either out with his mates or on his xbox so he has plenty of time to do a part time job. a lot of his friends who he spends his time with have part time jobs and they manage to go to college and have a soclial life....................as already mentioned in another post its not all about the money, its about getting him to stand on his own two feet and learning to become independant, getting experience and learning the true value of money. Get him ready for adulthood and the real world once hes finished at college. The other day he told me he "NEEDED" something and expected me to agree to buying it, when infact he didnt need it but would like to have it. If he had a part time job he could buy it himself and have the satifaction that he bought it himself with his earnings. No ones asking him to get a full blown 36hr a week job..........
 
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Well this is what is was like for me.

College finished at about 5pm. Got home at about 6.30pm. Had tea, a shower...etc, did college work. By that time it was more or less time for bed.

So if I was working Saturday and Sunday I would have had literally NO free time whatsoever.
 
Mephisto said:
Well this is what is was like for me.

College finished at about 5pm. Got home at about 6.30pm. Had tea, a shower...etc, did college work. By that time it was more or less time for bed.

So if I was working Saturday and Sunday I would have had literally NO free time whatsoever.
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Yes but im only talking perhaps 1 or two evenings per week and one day/few hours at the weekend - still leaves plenty of time to have fun.
 
justinwilkin said:
Some of you are being completely stupid about this.

At 16 which is only a couple of years ago for me, I worked at tescos 8 hours on saturday and 7 on sunday. That was whilst doing chemistry, biology, physics and Geography A/AS level courses full time.

I earnt about £2-300 a month and still had all the time I needed for study, free time, going out etc. I also did swimming lessons, and played in various classical music groups on top of that.

Before that, I started doing a paper round every day bar sunday since i was 13 for about £20 a week.

You can have a social life whilst working and at college! Just because you work doesn't mean you instantly lose it. It wasn't hard or anything and I wasn't constantly tired.
A weekend job doesn't affect you dramatically.

anyway, to the OP:

Pocket money for me stopped when......well when I forgot I needed it and didn't ask for it any more. If they get a job, they won't need it. Simple as. So unless he does a LOT of extra curricular activities such as music or sports etc then ask him nicely to work weekends or something.
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Quoted for truth!!! Seems to me some people posting on here would rather study over having a social life, let alone instead of having a job. I studied hard at school, and had a part time job + social life / sports, I studied hard at college (doing 4 A levels - chem, bio, forensics) and had a part time job + social life / sports..... and finally I'm studying hard at University doing Forensic Science and I've still got time for studying, working, social life and Kickboxing...

Pocket money stops when your child becomes mature enough to make the decision to get a job, for things that they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford with £10 a week or something.
 
I got a part time job at 16 whilst at school/college. Nothing beats earning your own money, gaining experience and skills.
 
16 is good age to stop it. I had 2 part time jobs whilst I did my A-levels and it did me no harm at all. Like you say he plays xbox most nights so its not as though he doesn't have the time. Buying something with money you have earned yourself is far more satisfying than having it given to you and like others have mentioned the jump after A-levels to either uni or the real world is going to be far bigger.

However I probably wouldn't just stop it and say get a job, I'd give him a couple of months notice so that he knows its coming and has time to look for something.
 
Why force them into work so young? Hell, they are going to be working for the rest of they're lives, anyway.
 
I didn't have a set amount at 16, but they did give me some every now and then, And usually some money if I said I was going out.
It's what I will be doing with kids, let them have fun as long as they don't take the pee and do somethings around the house.

But I did get a job towards the end of first year a levels, But we where expected to get a job in the summer holidays from 16 onwards. All 3 of us kept jobs on for veriuse amounts of times and usually just phoned up and got them to take us back in any other holidays.

should have got him out working in the last summer holidays before a levels, that we he could have saved up a bit of money, but also found he could have brought what he wished and fairly expensive items at that. Which gives huge motivation to work whilst studying. All though it can go the other way, I spent to long working and not enough time studying. Used to work Friday evening all day Saturday, all-day Sunday and Monday evening. And at £5.15 an hour from asda + time and a half on sundays worked out at a nice weekly pay.
 
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