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Two-child families struggle to make work pay
A new study claims that millions of two-child families struggle with the costs of childcare after the birth of the second child and in many cases one parent is forced to cut their working hours or quit their job entirely.
A new study claims that millions of two-child families struggle with the costs of childcare after the birth of the second child and in many cases one parent is forced to cut their working hours or quit their job entirely.
This is according to Aviva COTS (Cost Of The Sibling) study, which interviewed over 1,000 parents with two or more children.
The study claims that four in ten families feel it isn’t worth both parents working full time, after the arrival of their second child.
Full-time childcare for two children costs nearly £17,000 a year, says the survey and for many families this would mean working purely to pay the childcare fees.
Over half of mums (57%) reduce their hours or don’t return to work at all after the birth of their first child because they want to spend more time with their baby but this changes with the second child with financial factors being the biggest deciding factor (39%).
The survey claims that almost half (45%) of the parents who don’t return to work after their second child are taking at least five years off work.
These five years potentially cost over £125,000 in lost earnings, even before taking into account the additional cost of supporting the second child.
Louise Colley, head of protection marketing for Aviva commented: “As any parent will know, children have a huge financial impact on a family – and this can sometimes mean double trouble when a sibling comes along!
This is why protecting the family is so important, perhaps even more so when there are more mouths to feed.”
The news is at odds with a similar survey carried out by price comparison website, uswitch.com which found that over half of maternity returners are forced back to work for financial reasons.
It claimed that over half (52%) of mums returned to work after the birth of their child to ease financial concerns.
Recent budget proposals to remove Child Trust Funds and Health in Pregnancy grants puts a further squeeze on working parents, says the survey.
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