UK childcare enrolments jump after squeeze on household income

LONDON (BLOOMBERG) - More UK parents are enrolling their children into government-funded childcare programmes, suggesting a surge in living costs is feeding the already hefty price tag of childcare.

In March alone, more than 384,000 UK families used tax-free childcare, the highest number of sign-ups for the program since its start in 2017, according to data from the Department for Education.

Families are paying an average of £265 per week for their toddlers to attend 50 hours of daycare.

That cost is an increasing burden as inflation-adjusted wages are being squeezed at the sharpest pace in decades and the price of goods is rising at the fastest rate in 40 years.

The department's figures also showed that the number of families collecting at least £2,000 a year in benefits rose by 37 per cent to 512,415 in the year through April.

Almost a third of all households is set to receive £1,200 in childcare benefits in 2022.

Even before the pandemic, the government was looking at ways to support families cope with the cost of child care.

Those strains have increased with a shortage of labour that's driving up wages and the tightest squeeze on consumer incomes in decades.

The government's childcare programmes are aimed at shaving 15 per cent off the cost of care-related costs.

Benefits that help include the Universal Credit, which gives parents £2,000 annually for bills from nursery schools and child-care providers.

Additionally, families are offered 15-30 hours of free, weekly care, an initiative that began in 2017.

There has been a significant increase in traffic on the Department for Education's Childcare Choices website, following the launch of the campaign, said a source involved in the matter.

As part of a regulatory change, the government will raise the amount of dependents each caretaker is authorised to supervise from four to five.