EXCERPTS
The cost of a nursery place for a child aged over two has risen twice as quickly as wages, according to a report.
The survey by the Daycare Trust, the national childcare charity, shows that despite the downturn, nursery fees for a child of two or more have increased by 4.8% since last year, "far exceeding the growth rate of 2.1% for the average wage in the same period".
The most expensive nursery in the survey was in the West Midlands, costing 11 pounds an hour. Parents buying 50 hours a week of childcare could pay more than 28,000 pounds/yr - almost as much as at Eton.
London and the south-east remained the most expensive in Britain for all forms of childcare. In London, the average cost of 25 hours' nursery care for a child under two is 118.54 pounds, equating to 6,164pounds/yr. By contrast, the same provision in the north-west is 82.70 pounds/wk, or 4,300 pounds/yr.
The survey, compiled from figures submitted by family information services in England, Scotland and Wales, examines by region the cost of childminders, nurseries and after-school clubs as well as the availability of childcare. The charity says it found significant rises in costs for all forms of childcare, although the expense varied considerably between regions.
Anand Shukla, acting chief executive of the Daycare Trust, said: "When parents sit down to calculate their family finances and see childcare costs increasing far faster than their wages, it is no wonder they may think twice about the economic sense of staying in work. These high, rapidly rising costs are particularly significant given the number of people not receiving cost-of-living pay increases this year, the increase in VAT and rising costs of other household goods, particularly food and fuel."
There has also been increasing concern about the government's plans to reduce the childcare element of the working tax credit, which from April will cover up 70% of childcare costs for poor working families, rather than the current 80%.
-reprinted from the Guardian