Half of all adults in the UK with little or no savings say that their parents are to blame for their spendthrift habits.

The research carried out on behalf of Scottish Widows showed that 48 per cent of adults without financial reserves said that they learned their financial habits from their parents.

More than three fifths of adults in the UK have no significant savings.

The trend works equally well the other way, however, with more than half of those with savings saying that their parents had influenced their financial prudence.

"Our research shows a link between our parents' savings advice and our own savings habits once we've grown up, however, we shouldn't use this as an excuse for not saving," said Anne Young, from Scottish Widows.

"There were a number of people who whilst they weren't taught good savings habits as a child have managed to turn this around and now save regularly in adulthood."

Cheeringly, increasing numbers of adults say that they understand the importance of teaching their children good financial management.

Four fifths of all parents said that they taught their children the importance of finding the best saving account rates and good financial planning.

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