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UK Wedding News

17/02/2014

Childcare Costs Surge 77% In 10 Years

A new study has revealed that the cost of childcare has increased by 77% in just ten years.

As a result, some 500,000 mothers have made the decision to leave work in order to look after their children.

The report, by the Institute for Public Policy Research, found that the average price now paid for childcare is more than £100 a week.

In addition, the number of child care centres which offer a full-day service have halved since 2008.

Elsewhere in the findings, 60% of working mothers were found to be employed for less than 30 hours a week, and often in lower-skilled jobs than before they had become a parent. This left them earning significantly less than women who had no children.

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The report described the gap in the wages as a "motherhood pay penalty".

Due to the increasing cost of childcare, some 500,000 women had to make a decision to not return to work following the birth of their child because of the money involved, as well as the lack of flexibility when it comes to childcare.

Of the mothers polled for the research, more than 25% said working after 6pm cause 'serious' child care problems, while one in three said they had bother if they had to work before 8am.

Speaking to The Telegraph newspaper, Dalia Ben-Galim from the Institute for Public Policy Research, said: "The Government needs to focus on supporting mothers into work as a priority and then make it easier for them to increase the hours that they work.

"The current entitlement of 15 hours of free child care for three and four-year-olds has been hugely beneficial for mothers already in work, but has been largely ineffective in supporting mothers back to work.

"Fewer than 60 per cent of mothers of under fives are in work. This is important because the longer the break in employment for mothers, the greater the 'motherhood pay penalty'."

(JP/IT)

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"A new study has revealed that the cost of childcare has increased by 77% in just ten years."