The Family and Childcare Trust’s annual report shows just how much parents are spending on childcare and how it affects big life decisions.
Some parents are spending £7,500 a year on part-time childcare for two children, says the Family and Childcare Trust.
Councils in England, Wales and Scotland were asked to provide the cost of 25 hours and 50 hours of childcare in both nurseries and with childminders. The report found that a family with two children – one who goes to nursery part time and the other who attends an after school club – would need to spend £7,549 a year.
This sum is almost five per cent more than the average mortgage bill, showing why many families struggle to cover their childcare costs.
Some parents are spending £7,500 a year on part-time childcare for two children
Full-time childcare costs for the same family are estimated to cost around £11,700 a year.
The Family and Childcare Trust says that UK childcare has become more and more unaffordable with a 27 per cent rise in costs since 2009 – while salaries have remained static.
At the moment, childcare vouchers offered by employers can lead to savings of up to £933 per year for each parent, contributing £1,866 to a family of four’s income. But how these vouchers are offered is planned to be re-evaluated after the 2015 elections.
‘The burden that the spiralling cost of childcare places on households is continually reaching new highs,’ says Iain McMath, managing director of Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services, the leading provider of childcare costs in the UK. ‘It’s a situation that threatens not only family finances, but also the wider economy by encouraging parents to abandon work and stay at home.’
Do childcare costs stop you from returning to work? Let us know in the comments box below.