Press release:
Part-time childcare costs for a family of two children have overtaken the average UK mortgage bill by 4.7 per cent, according to new research from the Family and Childcare Trust.
The Family and Childcare Trust's annual childcare costs report shows, for a family of two children, the cost for one child in part-time nursery care and one in an after school club is £7,549 a year. This compares to the average UK mortgage cost of £7,207. The cost for the same family needing full-time childcare would amount to a staggering £11,700 a year, 62 per cent higher than the average UK mortgage.
Childcare costs are also outstripping other household bills. Twenty five hours of childcare in a nursery for a child under two costs an average of £109.89 a week in Britain - twice the price of a weekly household food shop.
Since the first survey in 2002, childcare costs have risen more than inflation every year. A full-time nursery place for a child under two now costs £9,850 a year, a rise of 3.3 per cent on 2013.
Parents in Britain use more of their salary to pay for childcare - more than a quarter (26.6 per cent) - than most other European countries according to the Organisation of Economic and Cooperation and Development (OECD) data.