UK childcare costs soar by more than £2,000 in a decade, TUC says

theguardian.com:

The cost of childcare has soared over the past decade and is now more than £2,000 a year higher than it was in 2010, according to analysis from the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

As people in the UK struggle with the cost of living crisis, parents face some of the highest childcare costs among leading economies, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The TUC said its analysis showed the average annual nursery bill for a family with a child under two had increased by 44% since 2010, from £4,992 to £7,212 in 2021.

It said nursery fees for under-twos had risen by £185 a month – or £2,200 a year – since the Conservatives took office. Statutory maternity pay has fallen in value at the same time. It was worth £151.97 a week in 2021/22, £5 a week less than in 2010/11, it 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,” said the TUC’s general secretary, Frances O’Grady.

Availability is also shrinking. Only 57% of local authorities report sufficient childcare places available for children under two.

A TUC poll of working parents with preschool children published in March revealed that 32% spent more than a third of their wages on childcare.

Joeli Brearley, the founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, which wants an independent review of childcare funding and affordability, said: “This is a cost parents are absorbing so that they can work and financially contribute to the economy, but extortionate costs are pricing them out of the labour market and back into the home.”

The TUC is calling for the childcare sector to receive financial help from the government to make it more affordable and increase