A third of parents are stumping up the full or part of the cost for lessons with over half paying out between £750 and £1500 to get their children driving, not including the costs for insurance, MOT, servicing costs and in many cases the car itself.

Asda Money say that the average insurance premium for a young driver is £1,982 combined with the average cost of a first time driver’s car, £1,200 on average it soon starts to add up.

Kirsty Ward, head of Asda Money, said: “Letting go of the apron strings and seeing the kids drive off for the first time is a really significant moment for any parent but for many it comes with a whole new set of worries. Parents are anxious about letting their children loose on the roads for the first time, but they’ve also got the huge cost of driving lessons and running a car to contend with.”

Despite parents being happy that they no longer have to chauffer their children around anymore, 24% of parents are worried their kids will be distracted by friends or loud music and 23% are concerned they’ll have an accident resulting in them writing off the car.

Parents are being urged to shop around for the best deals in car insurance, especially as the EU Gender Directive is about to be enforced this December.

The new legislation will now require insurers to price premiums irrespective of gender – which insurers say will mean that rather than young men’s premiums lowering to match those of young females, young females will see a hi8ke in their insurance premiums instead.