According to the research by Trades Union Congress (TUC), childcare fees for under twos have risen by £185 a month, or £2,200 a year, since the Conservatives took power.
The average annual nursery bill for a family with a child under two was £4,992 in 2010. In 2021, it had risen to £7,212 – an increase of 44 per cent - making the UK the country with the second highest childcare costs among leading economies, according to the OECD.
The analysis, which is based on data from Coram Family and Childcare, also warns that mothers are caught in a ‘catch- 22’ with childcare costs rising and statutory maternity pay falling in real value.
Since 2010, statutory maternity pay is down by 3 per cent in real terms, reveals the TUC.
It claims that the UK’s ‘paltry’ rate of statutory maternity pay is putting financial pressure on mums to return to work early, leaving them with ‘sky-high’ childcare costs.
The union body is continuing its call for an ‘urgent’ cash boost for the childcare sector to provide staff working in settings with better wages, along with a long-term funding settlement to make sure childcare is affordable and available for families.
It warns that Government proposals to relax staffing ratios would only damage the quality of childcare services, as opposed to reducing childcare costs as suggested by the Government.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said, ‘Childcare should be affordable for all, but parents are spending a massive chunk of their pay packets on childcare bills, while their wages stagnate.
‘This is putting huge pressure on family budgets at the same time as other living costs are shooting up.
‘We urgently need to get wages rising to stop households drowning in bills.’
She added, ‘The Government has done little to support the childcare sector – even when nurseries were forced to close during the pandemic.
‘Cutting staffing ratios is the last thing we need. It would just put more pressure on underpaid and undervalued childcare workers.’
Coram Family and Childcare called on the Government to reallocate the Tax-Free Childcare underspend to ease the burden on families.
Managing director Ellen Broome said, ‘Families are facing ever rising childcare costs and many are under intense financial pressure. We want the Government to re-allocate the billions of pounds in underspend from the Tax-Free Childcare scheme to ease the burden on low-income families.’
The Early Years Alliance’s chief executive Neil Leitch said the research is ‘another example of the disastrous impact of years of underfunding is having on the sector’, while Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), urged 'the Government to deliver funding that meets the cost of providing high-quality care and education.’
