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Childcare costs push 4 in 10 working parents on low incomes into debt – research

Families Research Childcare Costs
Working parents on lower incomes are being forced into debt, have had to reduce their hours or quit their jobs altogether due to problems affording childcare, reveals new research.
The research by Working Families highlights how childcare costs are pushing low-income parents into debt, PHOTO: Adobe Stock
The research by Working Families highlights how childcare costs are pushing low-income parents into debt, PHOTO: Adobe Stock

Based on a nationally representative survey of more than 2,000 working parents with a total income of £50,000 or less, 
‘The Working Families Index 2023: Spotlight on lower-income families’,  highlights how many working parents are having to make changes to their employment to afford and/or access childcare.

It also shows that parents on lower incomes are often unable to work flexibly.

Key findings include:

  • Four in ten working parents on lower incomes have gone into debt to pay for childcare.
  • Over half of working parents on lower incomes (51 per cent) have had to reduce their working hours to manage childcare needs. Women and black parents are most impacted.
  • Parents on lower incomes have significantly less access to hybrid or remote working arrangements than parents on higher incomes. Instead, lower-income parents tend to work reduced hours or term-time only.
  • Those who successfully requested flexible working were a third less likely to have quit their job to manage childcare, 25 per cent less likely to fall into debt and half as likely to have had their mental health negatively impacted than those who had their request turned down.

Jane Van Zyl, chief executive of Working Families, said, ‘This research reveals what we suspected, that for many parents on lower incomes, work simply isn’t working. No parent should have to reduce their hours, leave the workforce altogether or get into debt to pay for childcare. No parent should be prevented from accessing flexible working because they don’t work at a desk in a knowledge-based industry.

‘It is clear that flexible working is no longer a nice-to-have, it is a must have, particularly for those at the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis.

‘Alongside measures to increase the supply of high-quality, part-time and flexible jobs in the labour market, Working Families is also calling for affordable and accessible childcare, more inclusive, better paid leave for new mothers and fathers and greater security and advance notice of schedules for shift workers. This will support parents on lower incomes to thrive at work and at home.’