Labour is warning the cost of childcare is so high that that parents are having to cut down the hours they work. New Labour analysis shows the average family now spends nearly £1,500 more on a nursery place than five years ago.
Forty per cent of parents responding to a recent survey by Pregnant then Screwed said that they have to work fewer hours due to childcare costs, which rises to more than half of parents in households with incomes of below £50,000.
For primary school children, the cost of afterschool clubs having risen nearly 20 per cent over five years. With average parents spending more on after school clubs than on their weekly food shop.
A decade of Conservative governments has forced the closure of 1,300 children’s centres cutting off support for families, while the government has admitted to knowingly underfunding childcare providers which is pushing up costs for parents.
Labour’s Children’s Recovery Plan would mean children could go to breakfast clubs and after school activities for free, boosting children’s social development and wellbeing post-pandemic, and support working parents.
The Chancellor’s spring statement failed to give families the security they need as prices spiral and the Conservatives’ cost of living crisis is hitting household budgets.
Stephen Morgan MP, Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, said:
“I know from talking with Portsmouth parents how concerned they are at the cost of childcare, especially at a time of prices and bills going through the roof and the highest tax burden in 70 years.
“In the recent Spring Statement the Chancellor failed to give our city’s families the security they need. That’s why I want Government to halt the national insurance rise and use a one off windfall tax on oil and gas companies to cut household’s bills by up to £600 and put families first.”
“Labour would also deliver a children’s recovery plan which would more than triple pupil premium investment in children on free school meals in early years settings and deliver free breakfast and afterschool clubs”.
Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said:
“The Conservatives are making high quality childcare increasingly unavailable and unaffordable. Parents are having to work fewer hours or leave jobs because they cannot find or afford it, once again failing children and families.
“Labour’s Children’s Recovery Plan would invest in early years places for children on free school meals and boost access to before and after school clubs, as families fight rising prices”.
