WALES PARENTS NOW PAY £2,824 A YEAR JUST FOR AFTER-SCHOOL COVER

🔴 £2,824 a year, per child, just to cover the hours after school ends.

That is the figure in Wales, according to a Guardian Business analysis of data collected by the children's charity Coram.

In England the annual after-school bill is £2,636, up 5% in the past year and 42% over the past decade. Scotland is £2,701. Wales has risen 64% in ten years and 8% in the past year alone.

That is only the after-school slot. Coram found parents typically pay £191 a week per child for holiday childcare, adding more than £1,700 to the yearly total. Breakfast clubs are not in the number at all.

Then the extras. Research by Nationwide puts swimming, music, sport and dance at around £700 a year, or £9,100 across a child's school years. Uniform and sports kit average £381 a year, including £43 on shoes, £37 on blazers and £29 on tracksuits. School trips add £116.

Nationwide surveyed 2,002 UK parents and guardians. Nearly half, 49%, said they are stressed about back-to-school costs this September. One in four are delaying non-essential purchases.

Coram Family and Childcare's Lydia Hodges told the Guardian parents are asking whether work pays at all, and how many children they can afford. One civil servant with three children under seven said she and her husband take turns working from home rather than pay for pickup, and expects to spend about £250 per child on uniform and shoes even buying second-hand.

What is the one school cost you did not see coming?

#childcare #costofliving #UK #parenting #causeanuproar