Do your children get enough pocket money?

Children in Shropshire have seen their allowance drop by five per cent in the last year - from an average of £6.33 a week down to £6.03.

It is double the decrease experienced across the country, which has seen the average child who was pocketing £6.50 a week in 2013 now getting just £6.35.

The latest findings of Halifax's Annual Pocket Money Survey show nearly half - 48 per cent - of the children surveyed feel they receive the right amount of pocket money, two fifths- 43 per cent - think they should be getting more money, and a quarter believe their friends get more money.

Could the drop in spending money be down to penny pinching parents tightening their budgets or lazy little ones not completing their chores?

We asked families enjoying the summer holiday sunshine in Shrewsbury for their views on the pocket money debate.

Gabbie Brown, 11, of Birch Grove Ruyton-XII-Towns gets £20 a month and says that is enough for her.

"My mum and dad say you have to do jobs to get it and if I don't do many jobs I don't get all of my pocket money," she said.

"Sometimes I just get £15. I have to do things like clean my bedroom, empty to dishwasher and put things away after tea.

"I normally save it up for cycling and sporty stuff or buy sweets and gadgets.

"The last thing I saved up for was a tablet computer. I think I've got enough money. Because thing I really need my mum and dad buy for me."

Her father Simon Brown, a senior co-ordinator at a children's home said: "Quite often Gabbie doesn't always spend her pocket money so at the end of the month she still has £15 left.

"My other daughter Emily is the complete opposite. She's 13 and will go shopping with friends and come back with a top and she's had a McDonalds and her money for the month is all gone.

"I think I give them enough. It's just to teach them to manage their money really. When we are spending more money in general on them on holiday or if we've just bought them something quite expensive then we compromise and I say it's coming out of your pocket money. I can understand when people are finding budgets a bit tight if children don't get as much pocket money."

For five-year-old Olivia Clarke-Dunning, of Manor Crest, in Ford, pocket money is a thing of the future.

Her father Alastair Dunning, 45, a building surveyor said: "She doesn't get it yet but I will probably think about giving her £1 or £2 when she's six and I expect it will go up from there. I think it will teach her to be thrifty. I can understand parents not giving as much pocket money now things are a bit tighter."

Olivia said she was looking forward to having a purse full of pennies which she would spend on toys.

She said she would help with chores and was already practicing by helping clear up leaves while her father cut the hedge in the sunshine.

Mother-of-three Penny Davies, of Shrewsbury Road, Westbury had just bought water pistols for Aaron, 13, Jade, 10 and Ben, eight.

She said: "The pocket money situation is on hold at the moment but it used to be that Jade and Ben got £10 a month and Aaron got £15.

"They made their own chore list and had it up on the fridge but it's fair to say the chores weren't getting done so the pocket money dwindled.

"But it's something we need to look at again. We are saving up to go on holiday at the moment so that has to be taken into account. They probably wouldn't get as much if we were spending a lot of money on a holiday.

"Aaron has a contract with his mobile phone and kids have more these days anyway. They don't really have to save up for anything because they are fortunate enough that they have most things they want."

Aaron said he was happy with his £15 a month and agreed to start his chores again to earn it.

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