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The number of parents borrowing from grandparents to help meet childcare costs has doubled during the past year, new research has shown.
Around 21% of families now rely on money from the older generation to help them pay their childcare bills, up from 11% last year, according to financial services group Engage Mutual Assurance.
The group found that the average family received £1,200 a year from grandparents to help them meet the cost of nursery fees.
British parents face the most expensive childcare costs in Europe, with a nursery place for a child aged under two costing an average of £134 a week in 2004, rising to £168 a week in London.
Single parents are most likely to need support, with 29% relying on hand-outs from their own parents to help them meet the cost of nursery fees.
Overall, 58% of parents with grown up children said they were still giving them some form of financial help.
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- reprinted from the Press Association