More rely on '˜nans' for childcare

In Yorkshire, it has emerged that nearly three-quarters of families rely on “nan nurseries”, with grandparents spending almost eight hours a week on childcare duties, a figure well above the national average.

The cost saving, compared with paying a nursery or childminder for the same hours, is said to be £1,480 for each family, over the course of a year.

Yorkshire and the West Midlands are the areas where parents are most likely to rely on their extended families for childcare, according to the survey by insurer Ageas and the International Longevity Centre charity.

The report estimates that nine million grandparents make up “the UK’s grandparent army” of childcarers, including 2.7m who are heavily relied upon to provide regular childcare.

The calculated savings are based on grandparents who look after a single child, so those taking care of siblings could be saving their families even more.

The research found that nationally, two-thirds of grandparents provide some form of childcare for their grandchildren, making it easier for parents to go out to work.

More than a quarter (29 per cent) of grandparents say their adult children have heavy workloads so need childcare support, and one fifth say their children cannot afford formal childcare.

Two-thirds of grandparents offer financial contributions to their grandchildren’s upbringing, such as payments towards clothes, toys and hobbies, leisure activities and pocket money.

And as well as babysitting themselves, 23 per cent of grandparents also say they pay for babysitters so that everyone can have a break.

Baroness Sally Greengross, president and chief executive of the International Longevity Centre at University College London, said: “It is clear grandparents have become one of the biggest sources of childcare after parents themselves, allowing more parents to work and thereby reducing the costs of childcare.

“Nevertheless, how we support and reward this growing unpaid army and how we reconcile an increasing need to work longer for the over 50s, 60s and 70s and shape and expand family friendly policies for all, remains subject to debate.”

Last month, it emerged that people who had given up work to look after their grandchildren were failing to claim government credits that would help to build up their pensions.

The “grandparents’ credit” scheme, officially known as Specified Adult Childcare Credit, was introduced in 2011 to protect the pensions of grandparents who retire early to care for grandchildren so their parents can go back to work.

It was designed to ensure that those giving up their own careers, but still below state pension age, would not lose out on building up state pension rights that they would have otherwise received. But a Freedom of Information request by the insurer Royal London showed that only 1,298 people in a year had claimed it.

The company said its calculations suggested that more than 100,000 grandparents of working age could benefit if the scheme was more widely known about.

Each year that a person misses from work takes £231 a year from the state pension, a loss of £5,800 over a 25-year retirement.

Andy Watson, chief executive at Ageas, said: “Grandparents are saving working families billions every year.”