EXCERPTS
When you see that little blue line come up on the pregnancy test, the first thing that springs to mind is probably not: "How are we going to afford the childcare?" But, if you live in Britain - where childcare is ranked among the most expensive in the world - it's a far more relevant question to ask than, say: "Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl?"
According to a recent report by the Family and Childcare Trust, British parents are handing over more than £7,500 a year for childcare for two children, around 4.7% more than the average mortgage bill.
One in three mothers say they have been put off having another child by the cost of childcare, while 77% of parents say they would choose to work less and spend more time with their children if childcare in the UK was more affordable.
But do parents in the UK really get such a raw deal, and is childcare in the UK so much less affordable than in other countries? Sweden has the most generous childcare benefits in the world - and the greatest number of women in senior management positions. But what are parents entitled to across the North Sea and how does it work in practice? We spoke to a Swedish family living in Gothenburg to find out, and compared their experience with a British family in Manchester.
Sweden
Anna Holm, 35, and her husband Teddie, 36, live in a three-bedroom terrace house in Gothenburg, a historic industrial city about the size of Manchester on the south-west coast. They have two sons: Billy, aged five, and Vinnie, aged three, both of whom attend a local nursery with monthly fees.
Anna and Teddie both work full-time: Anna as a teacher and Teddie as a construction worker. But unlike most parents in Britain, both took long periods off work to look after the children, and each has also worked part-time whenever it has suited them to do so. And even though their children are currently in nursery full-time and will not start school until they turn seven, their childcare costs are a fraction of the amount that others pay in Europe, thanks to a state subsidy which reduces the bill for each child to just £113 a month.
The subsidy is means tested, so Anna and Teddie, who earn £31,000 and £32,000 respectively, pay the maximum amount. "You pay 3% of your gross salary but there's a cap so you never have to pay more than 1,260 Swedish krona [currently £113] a month per child - and if you have more children, you'll pay a maximum of 420 krona [£32] for the third child and nothing for the fourth," Anna says. "The thinking is that every parent should have the same opportunity to have childcare, regardless of your income and circumstances."
The couple take home around 70% of their salaries after tax, leaving them with a net household income of £3,460 each month after paying for childcare. In the UK, even after childcare vouchers are taken into account, the average working mother and father with two nursery-age children would need to have a household income of around £80,000 to be in the same position.
"Very few taxpayers in Sweden resent subsidising childcare costs for working parents," Anna says. "Most people realise that society gains as a whole - it means that both parents carry on working, so you don't lose talent in the workplace. And it increases the birth rate; a nation needs to have children."
It's about equality too, she says. "Everyone should be able to have a career; it shouldn't depend on whether you give birth or not. We take that for granted now in Sweden, but it's taken decades to change people's attitudes. Today, it's become much more acceptable for men to take time off work to look after their children - but it certainly never occurred to me to stop working after I had Billy. I worked hard for my qualifications and I like having a job. It wasn't something I even had to consider: I simply assumed I would have my child and then I'd go back to work."
At first she returned to her teaching job three days a week while Teddie - the higher earner - reduced his working week to just two days. Then, 10 months after their second son was born, Teddie took five months off work to look after both the children full-time. Later, the couple enjoyed a long period when they both chose to work four-day weeks.
This constant flexibility in their working arrangements is possible because, like all parents in Sweden, Anna and Teddie are entitled to a combined total of 480 days of statutory parental leave per child. Each has 60 days' leave set aside for their sole use, but the rest can be shared between them as they wish, and the first 390 are paid at 80% of their salary.
"We had 4,500 krona [£490] less coming in each month when one of us was looking after the children full-time, but it wasn't that big a difference and we thought it was worth it," Anna says. "It's hard to know what it's really like to be the one who stays home with the children until you have done it yourself. Teddie was a bit nervous - he worried about how he was going to manage a baby and a toddler by himself - but it went very well."
Meanwhile, Anna enjoyed going back to work: "I didn't find it hard to leave the children with Teddie at all. I was tired of being at home after 10 months and wanted adult conversation. And it improved my relationship with Teddie and our understanding and communication with each other - we have more realistic expectations about housework, in particular. But mostly, it was important for the children. They developed a much stronger connection with their father. It's not strange for them to ask Daddy for the same things they'd ask me for; they can go to either one of us. And if they're off sick, it's Teddie who usually stays home to care for them."
What does she think of the set-up in the UK? "I get a bit mad and a bit sad. In Sweden, I think parents have a better work/life balance. You see more dads in the playground, for example, and everyone always uses up their parental leave - you'd be stupid not to - which means neither men nor women are sidelined by their employers when they take time off. Employers have a very positive attitude towards pregnant women. They know that you're likely to come back. We have good laws that protect working parents - and those laws actually change the way that people think."
But how much does it cost the Swedish taxpayer to subsidise childcare in this way? Last year the bill was £328m; the cost for introducing similar caps in the UK, given the difference in the size of the population, would be about £2.2bn.
England
Olivia Beks, 32, and her husband Jacob, 30, live in a three-bedroom terrace house in Manchester, with their two sons: two-year-old Lucas and six-month-old Jenson.
Like Teddie, Jacob works full-time. But that is where the similarities with the Holms end. Because unlike Anna, Olivia - who has a degree, professional accountancy qualifications and years of managerial experience - cannot afford to go to work.
"I should be able to command a decent wage worthy of paying childcare and returning to work. But it would cost me more than £90 a day to put both my children in nursery, and my pay is nowhere near covering the cost of that," she says. "It barely covered my first child, once my commuting costs were factored in. If I were to return to work full-time, I'd lose money," Olivia says.
Before giving birth to her first child, she was a sales manager earning £21,000 - now, she reckons she'd need a salary of £25,000 a year just to cover her childcare costs. "Even then, I'd be paying to go to work after my travel expenses were taken into account ... I would really love to have a career, even part-time, for my own sense of achievement."
The Beks qualify for child benefit but nothing else. With no family nearby, Olivia looks after both children, day in, day out. "I love spending time with my children but I wish I could share things more with my husband. He doesn't realise that it can be more stressful than going to work, caring for two children under three. The nappies, the screaming ... sometimes I'm tearing my hair out.
"I'm just hoping I can get some part-time work after Lucas turns three and qualifies for 15 hours of free nursery care a week - although I'd still need to pay for childcare for Jenson."
What does she think of the Swedish set-up? "I'd love a cap on childcare costs of £113 a month. That would be fantastic. And the two weeks of paternity leave you currently get goes by in a sleep-deprived blur, so it would be great for my husband to be able to take more paid parental leave. He'd start to feel more confident looking after the kids by himself and I'd get more help. It would relieve a lot of the stress."
Mothers in the UK are entitled to six weeks' paid maternity leave at 90% of their salary, followed by 33 weeks at the statutory minimum of £138.18 a week (or 90% of their average weekly earnings - whichever is lower) and a further 13 weeks of unpaid leave.
Fathers are entitled to two weeks' paternity leave at 90% of their salary. Currently, mothers are allowed to share their leave with fathers once their child reaches 20 weeks old; this will change on 1 October to allow parents more flexibility in their arrangements.
In a poll of 1,684 parents conducted by topcashback.co.uk, 66% of parents in the UK said they wanted more paid time off work to be with their children and 72% said they would like to see the government cap childcare costs at £110 a month - both of which they would get if they moved to Sweden.
...
-reprinted from The Guardian