How much pocket money should children get? While the £6.50 figure is still far below the peak amount recorded in 2005, when parents handed out £8.37 a week, we are also giving far greater allowances, in relative terms, than parents did in the Eighties. In 1987, when a Twirl cost 22p, a week's pocket money would have bought you five bars. Some 26 years later the chocolate bar costs 65p. So children could now buy ten bars a week with their pocket money, Halifax said. The recent pick-up could be a tentative sign of growing confidence in economic recovery. Perhaps parents are now expecting greater rewards at work and prepared to increase pocket money in advance. Equally, those frustrated by pay freezes may be refusing to deal their children the same hand and making sacrifices elsewhere. Whether this is right or wrong is hard to answer. For example, some wealthy parents may feel it is right to give a proportionate share to their children to spend. Others may think this corrupts their understanding of the value of money. One economic study concluded that giving children generous amounts of pocket money is bad for them, encouraging financial profligacy and even breeding "state dependence" . I can see some logic in this argument, although it veers towards the extreme. I'd suggest the right amount of pocket money can teach children important budgeting lessons, with decisions to make on how to spend or save. And if it's based on fulfilling household chores, surely that's a useful - but gentle - window into how money operates in the world of work?