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UK Wedding News

23/01/2014

Cost Of Raising A Child Reaches £227k

The cost of raising a child has reached £227,266, according to latest figures.

The amount has increased from last year's amount (£222,458) and as a result, many parents are now being forced to delay having families.

The research, which was conducted by LV=, discovered that the first year of a child's life had the largest increase in costs, rising by 50% (£11,025 up from £7,372) since the first report in 2003.

In the past 12 months alone, it has increased by 5% and this is said to be largely due to the cost of childcare for children aged less than a year.

In total, parents were found to spend £66,113 on childcare. Education and childcare remain the biggest costs and 71% of parents revealed that they have been forced to make cuts to meet the financial demands of raising their family.

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The overall cost of raising a child has increased by 62% since 2003, the annual 'Cost of a Child' report by the insurance company claimed.

It also found that parents have suffered because of increases in the cost of living as more of their income is spent on essential goods and services such as rent, household bills and food; while single-parent families have been hit even harder as benefits have been put on hold and wages have not kept up with inflation.

Due to changes made to Child Benefit in January 2013, the report said that many families lost some or all of their child benefit, which has affected households. As a result, one in four (27%) mums have returned to work earlier than they wanted to and nearly to one in five (19%) have had to work more hours than they intended to. A further one in ten (11%) parents have now chosen to have a smaller family and one in five (21%) are delaying having an additional child because they are unable to afford it.

Mark Jones, Head of Protection at LV= said: "Having children has never been more expensive. The costs associated with raising a family are set to remain a pressure point for families across the UK but seeing the cost of raising a child in its entirety can help people think about how to secure their family's financial future should anything unexpected happen."

Geographically, the study found that London (£244,977), the South East (£243,177) and Northern Ireland (£237,959) are the three most expensive places to raise a family.

(JP/CD)

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"The cost of raising a child has reached £227,266, according to latest figures."