One in five (19 percent) of parents have taken money out of their pension fund or sacrificed saving into their pension to help their children, according to research from Prudential.

All of the over 1,000 parents interviewed by Prudential said they have already loaned money to their children or grandchildren to cover major financial commitments, or hoped to do so in the future.

A further fifth (19 percent) of parents have gone without certain things, and one in 10 admit they have ended up being short of money for emergencies since givi...