Martin Lewis says buying Christmas gifts for teachers puts 'unnecessary pressure' on parents

Martin Lewis has said buying Christmas presents for teachers can put 'unnecessary pressure' on parents. The Money-Saving Expert took to social media to 'clear up' his comments about the festive end-of-term tradition.

The ITV The Martin Lewis Money Show star shared a clip on Twitter/X to help clarify his position after saying the act should be banned in a radio interview this week. Mr Lewis said: "Should we ban gifts to teachers. I want to clear up my real view on this as it's in some papers... so even though it's past midnight, I've quickly recorded this...

"I have just seen some newspaper reports saying I think there should be a legislative ban on giving teachers presents," Mr Lewis added. "That is not my view. I have slight worries that individuals giving teachers gifts out of their pockets, then those with the biggest pockets are able to make teachers more grateful - so it sets a moral hazard.

"I also think we have to be very careful amidst the cost of living crisis that we don't make it a matter of course that people buy gifts for teachers and therefore put unnecessary, unaffordable pressure on every parent who has a kid in school to buy their teacher a gift."

He added that he did not think that most teachers did not treat children differently depending on what gifts they may have been bought but stressed it created a tricky situation.

It comes after he appeared on Times Radio earlier this week to speak about cutting the cost of buying Christmas presents. Presenter Matt Chorley said: "You know, people listening to this will think that, particularly the thing about buying presents for teachers and the pressure of that, that's a massive thing, isn't it? And what, you'd ban that?"

Mr Lewis replied: "I think we should ban - this is all about agreeing. So what I say is we should actually start, and we should start in September and get all those extended lists. And we should simply say, I think we shouldn't buy presents this year.”