The Impacts of, and Motivations for, Lifetime Gifts

Abstract

We saw in Chap. 4 that some families give substantial lifetime gifts to help with things like housing and education. But even a small gift could potentially make a big difference to someone with very little. So how much difference do lifetime gifts make to people, and in what ways? What would people have done if they had not received these gifts? Such hypothetical counter-factuals have their limitations, as it is impossible to know for sure what would have happened if a gift had not been received, but it is interesting nevertheless to see how people responded to this question in our interviews. As well as considering the impact on the recipient, this chapter also explores, quite uniquely in studies of this kind, the impact on the donor of the gift. How difficult was it for the donor to find the money and how did they do so? And, finally in terms of impact, this chapter provides, for the first time in the UK, both quantitative and qualitative evidence of the reported difference gifts (and loans) made to the relationships between the donor and recipient/lender and borrower.