Heads up, George Osborne: The tooth fairy gave £20m to children last year
In George Osborne's quest for tax receipts, this might be one to investigate: it turns out the Tooth Fairy has given kids £20m in the past year. And it's all tax free…
Yep – a study by The Magic Door Store, which (of course) sells miniature doors for fairies, showed the Tooth Fairy has become decidedly generous in her old age. Apparently, kids get an average of £1.32 per tooth (cue cries of "it wasn't like that in my day"), which means that by the time they've lost their full set, they have £26.40 burning a hole in their pockets. That's good for more than a few penny sweets…
And it turns out Tooth Fairies summoned by dads are more generous than those bought in by mums – who only offer £1, as opposed to men's £1.50.
Meanwhile, Northern Irish Tooth Fairies are also decidedly generous, giving an average of £1.76 to their wards – while Manchester's stingier variety only gives £1.34.
Sarah Tollit, the company's chief executive, said this was the first year it had conducted the research – "but we plan to reveal the increase (or decrease) in the amount fairies leave behind at the same time every year". A magical equivalent of the Economist's Big Mac Index, perhaps?