Two in three mothers say high cost of childcare is a barrier to working more

Around two-thirds of mothers say the cost of childcare is an obstacle to them working more, reveals a new report from independent think tank the Resolution Foundation.

In a survey conducted by the Resolution Foundation and Mumsnet for the report, 67 per cent of mothers in work and 64 per cent of those not working say the high cost of childcare is a barrier to taking on more employment.

Well over a third (37 per cent) of stay-at-home mothers say they would like to work and would hope to do an average of 23 hours a week. And one in five (20 per cent) mothers who are already employed would like to take on more work – an extra 10 hours a week on average.

Among mothers who are already working, it is those on lower earnings who are more likely to want to take on more hours. The average earnings of those who would like to work more, approximately £13,000 a year – are less than half those who do not – approximately £29,000 on average.

The results come from a survey of nearly 2,000 mothers with children under 10. Respondents were asked about their family make-up, income, childcare arrangements, work preferences and the barriers to work created by childcare – as well as how some of these might change under a different system of childcare support.

The report is the first step towards understanding how different systems of childcare support may affect mothers’ choices in the labour market, with the current cost of childcare a clear barrier to work for many mothers. The report also analyses OECD data to show that the UK lags behind some other western economies on rates of maternal employment with about 67 per cent of mothers in some form of paid work – compared to 86 per cent in the best performer, Slovenia, and behind Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland.

This relatively low employment rate is a concern, particularly for lower income households, because the risk of poverty for children in families with only one earner is much higher than for those in dual-earner families. There are approximately 5.5 million working mothers of dependent children across the UK, and 2.9 million mothers who do not work.

The Resolution Foundation report’s other findings include:

· Childcare costs are named as the biggest single obstacle to more work by more than four in 10 mothers (42 per cent of those in work and 41 per cent of those not working)

· For working mothers, the next most common barrier to more work is employers being unable or unwilling to offer more hours (cited by 17 per cent). The report also shows that nations with the best maternal employment rates are more likely than UK employers to offer flexible work options, including the ability to set some of your own hours or to use accumulated hours to earn leave days

· A significant number of mothers (14 per cent of working and 15 per cent of those not working) said that wanting to stay with their children was their primary reason for not working, or not working longer

· Any extension to childcare support would be popular with mothers. A large majority of both working and non-working mothers say they would take up an increase in the entitlement to free hours (currently 15 hours a week for 3 and 4-year-olds) or more money from the childcare element of the working tax credit – and that both would enable them to take on more work. This suggests that while mothers are looking for further help, they do not particularly favour any one type of support

· Although the cost of childcare is a frequent barrier to work, a large minority of respondents (43 per cent) said they would work even if it did not leave the household any better off.

Vidhya Alakeson, deputy chief executive of the Resolution Foundation and author of the report, said:

“A mother being able to work, or to work longer hours, can often be the factor that lifts a family out of poverty and this report shows that many mums want to do exactly that. The problem is that we do worse than several other countries on maternal employment – especially for single mothers and mothers of three-to-five year olds – which is precisely the group where most childcare support is being targeted.

“That suggests that not enough is being done to help women with children to take on more work if they want to, especially with regard to reducing the costs of childcare and improving working flexibility. It’s especially worrying that current plans to reform childcare direct more support to better-off parents when it is the less well-off who would benefit most and, at the same time, save money from the public purse by taking on more work.”

Justine Roberts, CEO of Mumsnet, said :

“Cost of childcare is clearly proving a real barrier to women working. It’s time to start thinking of childcare as infrastructure to the economy in the same way as we think about transport or technology. Enabling women who want to work or who want to work more hours to do so, brings real financial benefits to their own family income and also to the wider economy.”

Careers and Carers: childcare and maternal labour supply by Giselle Cory and Vidhya Alakeson

Ends

For more information contact:

Warwick Smith (head of communications, Resolution Foundation) 020 3372 2959 or 07443 042722 warwick.smith@resolutionfoundation.org

Vidhya Alakeson (deputy chief executive, Resolution Foundation) 020 3372 2953 or 07929 157987 vidhya.alakeson@resolutionfoundation.org

Notes

1. The report includes the findings of a survey of 1,934 mothers with children under the age of 10 which was carried out by Mumsnet and the Resolution Foundation in late November. The sample is not representative of the overall UK population of mothers with children of that age.

2. The current entitlement to free childcare is 15 hours a week for all parents of children aged three and four (and in some cases, two).

3. The government is planning a scheme to offer extra support to working parents with younger children. This would be divided in two parts; a tax free voucher system allowing most better-off parents to claim up to £1,200 towards the cost of looking after a child and, for families who qualify for universal credit and earn enough to pay income tax, an increased payment which will cover up to 85 per cent of their childcare costs (rather than the current 70 per cent). Lower-earning families in universal credit will therefore not qualify for the higher payment under UC