Childcare costs driving parents out of work

One in five parents in households earning less than £50,000 are leaving work due to childcare costs, and three-quarters have reduced their hours, according to data from campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed.

Some 20% of the 12,000 parents in this salary bracket with children under five said childcare costs or availability had forced them to drop out of the workforce.

Almost two-thirds of respondents overall (61%) said they or their partner had reduced their hours, while this increased to 76.6% for parents with income of under £50,000, 67% among Asian parents and 75% among parents with disabled children.

Two in five had seen childcare costs rise by 5-10%, while a further 14% said they’d gone up by more than 10%, meaning that almost half (48%) can’t access the childcare they need.

Pregnant Then Screwed chief executive Joeli Brearley said that “work does not pay when you have a young child”.