Fears as childcare costs add to cost-of-living crisis

The country’s childcare system is at a breaking point, leaving many families in a financial crisis.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, parents in Britain pay the second highest childcare cost in the developed world. But costs vary, with some spending up to 65 percent of their wages on childcare, according to the charity Business in the Community.

Raging inflation and a crisis in the cost of living are worsening the financial situation of many working families with young children.

Some organizations take the baton on behalf of those who pay for childcare. Thousands of parents took to the streets yesterday for the nationwide ‘March of the Mummies’ protest, organized by pressure group Pregnant Then Screwed (PTS).

Joeli Brearley, founder of PTS, says: ‘We have an unaffordable, inaccessible, dysfunctional childcare system that has been neglected by the government for the past ten years.

Nurseries are closing their doors en masse due to underfunding and a lack of childcare professionals, who leave the sector to work in supermarkets because the wages are higher. When will the government realize that investing in childcare is that, it is an investment.’

There is currently financial support for parents in the form of duty free childcare up to £2,000 a year. Most parents who earn up to £100,000 and work 16 hours or more are eligible. But this remains well below the average annual cost. For a child under the age of two, the average cost of part-time childcare is £138.70 per week or £7,210 per year.

Uptake is low. About 391,000 families claimed it in June, compared to the 1.3 million eligible. Only in the period after most children turn three do parents also get 30 hours of free childcare during the period.

Laura Suter of asset manager AJ Bell says: ‘The £2,000 funding will pay just over seven weeks of childcare costs for a child under two in a full-time nursery. This is not a huge dent in the annual accounts.’

Childcare organizations are urging the government to address the problem. They broadly agree that support should start from the time parental leave ends, usually nine months after a baby is born. They also state that the 30 free hours should be extended to the whole year, not just the term. According to them, more money should be made available for childcare and staff.

Elin Hultgren, a 33-year-old development manager from Nottingham, uses the duty-free childcare to pay for the expenses of her 20-month-old daughter Freja. But she still pays £720 a month for care four days a week. For Elin and fiancé Alex, childcare takes up 15 percent of their family income.

She says, “If we didn’t have to spend so much on childcare, I wouldn’t worry so much about our household costs going up all the time.”

www.gov.uk/browse/childcareparenting/childcare.