Families are set to see childcare bills rise by up to £1,400 a year by 2015 because of soaring prices and reduced state support, a study shows.
It has led to warnings that parents will be forced to consider giving up work to care for their children themselves because of the squeeze.
Research by the Social market Foundation, the think tank, showed that poorer families would be worst hit proportionally with a 62 per cent rise in the amount they will have to pay out.
The Parent Trap study combines projections of childcare costs over the next few years and the expected effect of changes to tax credits and a freeze in Government-supported childcare vouchers currently available to working parents.
It shows that by 2015 the amount a family with a total household income of just £20,000 a year pay towards childcare will have seen a rise of £600 a year compared with the bill in 2006, when state support was at its height.
Childcare experts Laura and Ali give guidance to reasonable nursery costs and when you should consider yourself overcharged.
How have you found your childcare costs have increased over the years? Have you ever considered giving up work as the cost has got too high? Are you priced out of the workplace?
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