Childcare Costs British Parents More Than Mortgage: New research released as part of the Family and Childcare Trust’s annual report has suggested that annual fees for childcare in the UK are now higher than the annual average cost of a mortgage. According to the trust, the average annual cost of having one child at a part-time nursery and a second attending an after-school club are more than £7,500 per year – in comparison to the estimated £7,207 that is the average annual mortgage payment in the UK.

Childcare Costs British Parents More Than Mortgage

Average annual fees for a full-time nursery are even higher, coming in at around £11,700 per year – a cost which is two thirds more than the average annual mortgage payment.

The Family and Childcare Trust, which has based its figures on information gathered from family or children’s information services in Local Authorities around England, Wales and Scotland, has stated that childcare is increasingly becoming unaffordable – with the cost having risen by more than a quarter (27%) since 2009 whilst wages remain fixed. These rises are despite successive governments spending billions on supporting childcare – the current Parliament will have spent an additional £1 billion alone.

In England, children receive 570 free hours of care each year, beginning in the first term after their third birthday. All children in Scotland and Wales also qualify for some element of free childcare at this time. Despite this, many parents are still required to contribute a large proportion of their salary to paying for additional childcare – in 2012, according to the OECD, only parents in Switzerland contributed more of their salary as a proportion than British parents.

On average, British parents spend 26.6% of their income on childcare – compared to an OECD average of 11.8% – with figures in France and Germany at 10.4% and 11.1% respectively. As a result, the employment rate for mothers with children under five in Britain is lower than in most other OECD countries.