OVER a quarter of youngsters with working parents plan to offer their gifts or pocket money to help cover the costs of Christmas, research by Action for Children has found.

The children’s charity survey of eight to 17-year-old children found that 26 per cent who receive pocket money or money for their birthday or Christmas said that they plan to offer it to their parents to help them buy things during the festive season.

The poll also found that 26 per cent of parents were worried about being able to afford items for a traditional Christmas, including a tree and food, with one in five reporting that they were worried about being able to afford presents.

Action for Children said it was increasingly having to give emergency support to families as financial hardship for many people in Britain has worsened.

More than half of the parents surveyed said that they had often worried about money over the last six months and had experienced difficulty sleeping, declining mental health and becoming stressed or upset in front of their children.

Action for Children found that 45 per cent of its front-line staff were extremely worried about the health and wellbeing of children, young people and families they support because of their financial position, with 10 per cent of them having donated some of their own items to children.

A young girl told a worker that she wasn’t asking for anything from Santa this Christmas because it would make her mother “too sad.”

Victoria, a mother of four from Bath, told of regularly skipping meals so that her children have enough to eat.

Her 11-year-old daughter Keira gives up her pocket money to help her mother buy basics and also donated her birthday money recently.

She said: “What’s in my cupboard at the moment is just pasta, cereal, baked beans and bread. Most of it is from foodbanks.

“I get a foodbank parcel from the nursery every week and the girls collect a bag or two of foodbank food from the school too.

“I had to find money for one of my daughter’s school trips yesterday and I had to ask my mum for the money as I just couldn’t afford it.

“It makes you feel you’re not good enough to be a parent when you have to ask for help.”