Many parents in Britain are paying more for childcare annually than the average mortgage bill
Report today says that many parents in Britain are paying more for childcare annually than the average mortgage bill, according to a report.
The Family and Childcare Trust’s annual report says average fees for one child in part-time nursery and another in an after-school club are £7,549 per year.
Full-time childcare cost for a family with a two-year-old and a five-year-old child are estimated at £11,700 a year.
The report compares the costs to the average annual UK mortgage payment, which was estimated at £7,207 in 2012.
The trust says childcare in England, Wales and Scotland is becoming increasingly unaffordable with a 27% rise in costs since 2009, while wages have remained static.
This is despite successive governments recognising its value to children, families, society and the economy and spending £6bn on supporting childcare every year, it adds.
The report notes that during the course of the current Parliament, the government will have put an additional £1bn into supporting childcare.
All children in England, Scotland and Wales qualify for part-time free early education in the term after their third birthday.
In England, they receive 570 free hours every year, but even with this help some parents are contributing a substantial part of their income to childcare.
In 2012, only Swiss parents contributed a higher share of their salary than British parents, who on average spent 26.6%.
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