Parents of nursery and primary school-age children are facing additional childcare costs of almost £200 per week, as employers demand extra days in the office post-pandemic.
According to research carried out by flexible childcare provider Pebble, more than half of parents have felt extra pressure to be in the office more than was originally expected of them, resulting in higher childcare costs equating to an average of £166 per week.
On-site yoga and pizza lunches are nice, but what about supporting the childcare needs of parents?” – Lance Beare, CEO, Pebble
On average, employers were requesting an additional two days per week, with the result being that almost 60% of the 2,000 parents surveyed struggled to juggle work and childcare. Two in five parents said they were struggling to afford the extra costs of childcare, which was costing parents up to £664 extra on average every month.
The cost to cover additional childcare in London was higher, too, at £205, which meant that Londoners were out of pocket for almost £1,000 more per month to cover these additional office days, Pebble claimed.
Childcare
Childcare costs prevent mothers from working
Spending more time in the office also led to employees having to spend more each week on travel costs.
Four in 10 families (37%) said that these extra costs were putting a strain on their finances, with a fifth of families (20%) worried about how long they could afford to keep paying bills at that level.
In order to manage the situation and reduce the high costs associated with childcare, some parents were already looking for new roles that allowed them to work from home more, according to the research.
Lance Beare, CEO of Pebble, said employers needed to refocus on childcare: “When you ask employees to be in a certain place at a certain time, they need to line up childcare; and this comes at a cost; without childcare in place, parents can’t work. Employers need to look at their company benefits and reassess what people need support with today; on-site yoga and pizza lunches are nice, but what about supporting the childcare needs of parents so that they can afford to keep working instead?”
The research showed that families wanted employers to take more notice of the challenges surrounding childcare and increased office hours. Most parents (63%) said they would like their bosses to be more understanding, and almost half wanted financial support when they were asked to come into the office for extra days. Nearly half (45%) said they thought parents should be given the right to choose whether they come into the office for any additional time or not.
In March’s Budget, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that 30 hours of free childcare for working parents in England would be expanded to cover all children over nine months old from September 2025. This would apply to all households where all adults in the household work at least 16 hours per week.
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