Childcare costs increased by twice the amount of the average pay rise last year – will more mums have to stay at home out of necessity rather than choice?
The cost of sending your child to nursery is rapidly increasing, with the current average nursery place costing £5,028 a year in England. Nursery costs increased by 4.8% during 2010 – more than double the 2.1% rate of wage growth, research from the Daycare Trust revealed. The most expensive nursery in the country, an unnamed centre in the West Midlands, charges £11 an hour or £28,600 for fulltime childcare throughout the year.With the VAT rise and the ever-increasing costs of food and fuel, it’s no surprise that for some parents the cost of nursery care is just too much. “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,” said the Daycare Trust’s acting chief executive, Anand Shukla, reports the Telegraph.
