Childcare costs ‘exceed mortgages’

It reveals parents are handing over more than £7,500 a year for childcare for two children, around 4.7 per cent more than the average mortgage bill.

The report, by the Family and Childcare Trust, also suggests that some families may be spending more on childcare than they do on their weekly shopping.

The study found that a family with one two-year-old child attending nursery part-time (25 hours a week) and a five-year-old in an after-school club will pay out £7,549 a year on average. This is higher than the UK average annual UK mortgage, which the report says is £7,207.

For a family with two youngsters in full-time childcare the average yearly cost is £11,700, the report adds, 62 per cent higher than the average yearly mortgage bill for a family home.

The study says that since 2002, childcare costs have risen more than inflation each year and that data shows parents in Britain hand over more than a quarter of their salary, more than most other European nations.

In the last five years alone, the price of part-time nursery care for a child under two has risen by 27 per cent, with parents paying around £1,214 more in 2014 than in 2009.

The report concludes: “Our research shows that the current childcare system is not working for anyone.”