Extortionate childcare costs forcing Welsh parents into poverty
‘Crippling’ childcare costs and a lack of Welsh government funded childcare provision is driving parents into poverty, leaving them without money to pay for basic essentials and forcing them to refrain from having more children, according to research.
A report by Oxfam Cymru, on behalf of the Make Care Fair coalition, drew on more than 300 parents’ experiences of navigating Wales’ complex and ‘extortionately expensive’ childcare system.
Key survey findings include:
- Over a quarter (27%) of respondents spend more than £900 a month on childcare costs
- Over two in five (43%) say they haven’t been able to pay other essential costs after paying for childcare
- Two-thirds (67%) report having to reduce their working hours due to a lack of childcare
- Over half (53%) of respondents say that after paying for childcare costs, it doesn’t make financial sense for them to go to work
- Two-thirds (67%) say that childcare costs put them off having more children
Campaigners are calling for an overhaul of the Welsh government’s existing Childcare Offer, guided by a new expert advisory group, to ensure that any future rollout of funded childcare across Wales meets parents’ needs while simultaneously delivering the government’s anti-poverty and gender equality ambitions.
Currently, the Welsh government provides access to 30 hours of funded childcare for three- and four-year-olds of eligible working parents through its Childcare Offer.
It separately provides 2.5 hours of childcare a day for two-year-olds in low-income households in limited local authorities through its Flying Start scheme, which campaigners describe as a ‘postcode lottery’ and ‘wholly inadequate’ in terms of reducing poverty and providing childcare.
Nearly two years on from the signing of Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru’s cooperation agreement, little is known about how the parties plan to deliver their pledge to expand funded childcare places to all two-year-olds. The budgetary pressures facing the Welsh government risk seeing expansion plans being kicked into the long grass.
The Make Care Fair coalition said it is primarily women who are paying the price for ministers’ delays, with mothers forced to either reduce their working hours or give up work entirely in order to care for their children, further entrenching poverty and gender inequality across Wales.
Sarah Rees, head of Oxfam Cymru, said: ‘Across Wales, eye watering childcare costs are either trapping parents in poverty or leaving them on the precipice of poverty as they are forced to make impossible choices about their career and future plans to have more children.
‘It defies all logic that the small number of people who are currently eligible for the meagre childcare support available for two-year-olds in Wales will then likely not be able to access further childcare support when their child turns three thanks to different eligibility criteria.
‘Instead of simply rolling out an already broken scheme further, ministers must get expert advisers around the table to help overhaul Wales’ childcare system and develop a clear plan for a new, fairer and more comprehensive high-quality system that tackles both poverty and gender inequality across Wales.’
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