Many parents who try to return to work after having a child are finding it more and more difficult as the costs of childcare keep rising. In one year alone, nurseries, after school clubs and childminding costs have risen by six per cent according to an annual survey by the Daycare Trust.
Parents wanting to return to work have no choice but to pay these prices, as relying on Grandma isn’t always an option. To put a baby in nursery for 25 hours a week costs an average £106.38, up from £102.05 last year. For children aged two or above it is slightly cheaper at £103.96, but this is an increase of £6.45 from 2012.
Childminders are still slightly cheaper than nurseries, but your child doesn’t get the interaction with other youngsters. In 2012 it cost £92.68 for 25 hours of childminder care, now it will cost you £98.15. After school clubs are still one of the cheapest childcare costs around, but even they didn’t escape the price increases. 15 hours will cost you £49.67, an increase of £4.14.
The prices have come under the spotlight recently as the most expensive nursery will cost you more than one of Britain’s top public schools. Charterhouse costs £30,574 for a year, whilst the most expensive nursery costs £42,000 per annum.
Speaking of the results of the survey, Anand Shukla, Chief Executive of Daycare Trust said: “Childcare is as essential as food and heating for working families. Yet while wages stay still and childcare becomes more expensive, it’s increasingly difficult for parents – and mothers in particular – to make work pay.
“The survey makes clear that – from a parent’s perspective – costs are increasingly difficult to manage which is a finding that should concern us all. Families are being expected to pay more for their child’s nursery place – an average of £14,000 per year in London – than the fees for many private schools – and this cannot continue”
The Daycare Trust is urging the Government to do more as the rise in childcare costs is more than double that of inflation. Lower income families were already hit hard with a 10 per cent drop in childcare support in tax credits, so how can they be expected to meet these costs when wages aren’t rising at the same rate?
“I would ask the Government to take the opportunity at the forthcoming Budget to increase the limits for childcare vouchers, to extend the scheme to the self-employed and those on the National Minimum Wage, and to give all employees the right to request a scheme from their employer.
“It would show to this country’s working families that Government ‘gets it’. They get that support needs to be widely accessible, they get that household budgets are becoming increasingly strained, and they get that working mothers and fathers – part of the lifeblood of the British economy – need adequate support to raise their families and this country’s future,” said Julian Foster, Managing Director of a voucher scheme.
Are you a working parent? How do you feel about the rising costs for childcare? Are you lucky and have family to turn to or do you think one parent will be forced to give up work as the costs are just too much?
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