Working families' childcare costs rising faster than wages

The union’s analysis claims that childcare fees have risen by 52 per cent since 2008, while wages have risen by 17 per cent during the same time period.

It says that there is currently a real gap in childcare support for one-year-olds until funded childcare starts at two or three-years-old. It says that this would enable parents to continue working and mean that mothers don’t continue to have to make a choice between having a family and a career.

Fees in England are now on average:

In terms of regional difference the research finds that over the past ten years the growth in nursery fees for families with a full-time and a part-time working parents has outstripped wages the most in the West Midlands, followed by the South East and the North East.

The  TUC says that its analysis shows that despite funded early education and the introduction of Tax-Free Childcare families still face huge childcare bills.

To highlight the shortfalls it gives an example of parents with a three-year-old and a 1-year-old, claiming that a family on average earnings (with a parent working full-time and a parent working part-time) has to pay more than £4,700 a year to cover fees. A low-income working family (with a parent working full-time and a parent working part-time) would pay nearly £2,000 a year.

Shortfalls are higher for single parents it says, with a single parent on average earnings (working full-time) paying just over £6,000 a year, or £1,900 a year working part-time.

The TUC is calling for: