The rising price of parenthood

A study co-funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Child Poverty Action Group reports that the average cost of bringing up a child up to the age of 18 years old now stands at £148,000, up 4 per cent from last year.

That means if you had a child today, then you would need an average of £8,222 a year or £685 per month or £158 per week or £22.53 per day in today’s money to support them up to the age of 18.

This information comes against a backdrop of stagnating wages, cuts in the benefits system and the soaring cost of childcare, food and clothes for children – all of which are contributing towards the ever-increasing struggle that parents are facing to provide a decent standard of living for their families.

Further figures suggest that those working full-time on the national minimum wage had only 83 per cent (couples) and 87 per cent (lone parents) of the minimum income needed to support their families.

Katie Schmuecker, policy and research manager at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, says that ‘the task of making ends meet for families with children has always been hard, but is getting harder, and balancing family budgets has become a perilous and delicate act for hard-pressed parents’.

This is echoed in findings from OMD’s Future of Britain study of 2,000 nationally representative respondents.

Future of Britain found that 55% of those surveyed are struggling to meet financial commitments, with young families (75%) amongst the most affected.

And the sobering thought is that by the time of the next general election in 2015, we are likely to see (for the first time since the 1930s) a standard of living which is lower than that during the previous election.

Whilst the future of Britain looks slightly more positive for some people, for many it continues to be day-to-day struggle.

Read the full report here: http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/cost-child-2013

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