I think it is fair to put a caveat into this research. It's the standard stuff to grab headlines so in this instance Abbey finds it easier to borrow from private punters. I imagine it's a regular survey and a few "headline grabbing questions are thrown in to er... get headlines. In other words, it's obviously not independent.

Are there any steps you think the government should take to help or encourage families to save?

No, unless they can go back in time to 1997 and get Mr Brown to run the economy in a responsible manner - by default I'm a labour supporter. Mr Brown aka "Prudence" so encouraged a live now pay later culture that saving moved further and further down the agenda. Mr Brown also put an "ACT" £5bn tax on pensions pa and with the crunch and many people's lack of interest in building up a pension pot + live now pay later we now live in a society where people's first reaction to being over their heads in debt is to say they are desperate to get a further loan so they can get out of debt.

Just one more bit - say 40 years ago (are you ready for this?) if you wanted a mortgage you had to save with a building society for a significant period before you could ask that bs for a mortgage. NOT saying that was right but look at the huge swing in attitude of both financial institutions and individuals.

THIS IS NOT a short term problem like the crunch, this is a horror story waiting to happen because if you take pensions - very unpopular with "young families" and the young in general - a generation is going to get to retirement age still having a significant mortgage on their home and a desultory pension and probably be grateful that Mr Brown Mk2 has cooperated in raising the retirement age to 80.

More than a quarter of parents with young children have no savings, according to a new study.

Analysis carried out by Abbey shows that 28% of such parents have nothing to fall back on, while a further 20% have less than £1,000 saved for a rainy day.

Many mums and dads who have managed to squirrel some money away into their savings accounts are now struggling to keep that up, with a quarter of parents cutting what they save by as much as £3,300 a year.

Others are dipping into their nest egg to meet everyday costs, meaning there’s less cash set aside for future costs such as university.

Abbey suggests this is partly down to the rising cost of bringing up a child. The cost of childcare has risen by 6.5% since December 2007.

Reza Attar-Zadeh, Abbey’s director of savings and investments, said: "It's vital for everyone to have a rainy day fund even more so for parents, who must juggle the need to build up a nest egg for their children's future with the need to provide for the here and now.”

What do you think? Are you a parent who’s struggling to save? Does it worry you? Is this just a sign of difficult economic times or are parents becoming more complacent about saving for the future? Are there any steps you think the government should take to help or encourage families to save?