Two in five parents give their children pocket money digitally as well as in cash, according to a new survey by the ING.

While in 2018, similar research showed that almost three in four parents simply gave their children aged between four and 11 a cash allowance, this has fallen to 48%.

The bank surveyed around 1,000 parents to see how the next generation is being brought up to understand and manage money – something that in the Netherlands is considered an important lesson.

While in 2018, just 10% of parents gave their offspring cash in a bank account, this has risen to one in three. The bank believes that this is because they want to show them how to manage money in both settings, as well as providing them with the opportunity to pay in cash-free environments such as sports clubs.

‘We think it is a good development that parents are opting more often for a combination of cash and digital money,’ said Karin Wartena, a specialist in young customers at ING. ‘Children learn best by experiencing how it works for themselves, and also that digital money can run out too.’

However, the survey also showed that 38% of parents also find it difficult to teach their families how to manage both cash and digital money – largely because it is so much ‘easier’ to spend money online and less easy to explain visually.

According to the research, the vast majority of young children had their own bank accounts – where parents can gift a certain amount of money tax-free each year. For children from four to seven, 48% had their own account, this rose to 79% by the time they were 11 and from the ages of 12 to 17, to 91%. From the age of 12, when most children go to secondary school, most had their own bank card too.

Parents also said they believed that banks have a growing role in financial education: teaching safe banking practices, careful saving and – that vital Dutch trick in splitting the bill to the last cent – ‘sending a Tikkie’ payment request.