What do you think about high childcare costs? FT readers respond

As half of a couple who both work full-time with two children, nursery and school wraparound care cost us far more than our mortgage. It regularly edges towards unsustainable to keep both of us working full time.

Why is there no tax relief on childcare? It is quite unsustainable.

— King Arthur

This is why I left the UK back in 2019 — I now pay the equivalent of £150 a month per child for a private kindergarten in suburban Warsaw, Poland. There was no point in staying in the UK. If I had two kids, I would have to fork out about 2x£1900 in London. London fees are more than 10 times fees here in Poland. I don’t think people in Poland earn 10 times less money. Something does not add up here.

— Jo$e666

If people can afford not to go back but want to prioritise their career that’s fine. Good for them, but don’t expect the state to subsidise that choice. By all means, help with childcare costs should be in place for those who cannot afford not to work when raising kids, but not for those who do it by choice.

— Iceman UK

We are living Claer’s article too, but we have another simultaneous fight and cost as one of our toddlers is disabled. We have to factor in private therapists as the NHS waiting lists are very long. Plus the battle to get a decent Education Health Care Plan to support them when they get to school is harder than anything I’ve experienced in the workplace.

There doesn’t seem to be a champion of any of these issues in the cabinet. In fact, the recent special education needs review proposed measures that just made things worse.

— QuiteRight

Whether or not you have children, society economically relies on children being born and brought up, so that we can replace all our roles in time with younger people. While we may choose not to have children personally, we have a duty to those who do — a duty to help them raise, educate and bring up this succession to adult society. There is no pressure to have children, but nor is it an indulgence to do so. We all have a very significant stake in the successful raising of children whether we have them or not.

— Hectorious

Something is not adding up for me here. Childcare providers are charging eye-wateringly high fees, while complaining of increasing costs. I wonder whether the real reason is the profit motive. We won’t be able to judge whether the fees are “reasonable” unless we get an insight into their gross margins.

— Incedo

I have some sympathy for parents who have to pay exorbitant prices for childcare, but some sympathy is also needed for those of us without children, as we are in effect forced to pay more not only for other people’s parents, but also for other people’s children.

The UK as a country really needs to decide what type of country it wants to be: whether it’s the republican American model of small state and low taxes, or the European socialist model of high taxes and affordable childcare and healthcare. Pretending to have one’s cake and eat it does not work.

— general assembler

If higher earners can barely afford to balance the books each month, how are people who earn less able to afford it?

No wonder many women end up leaving work, changing jobs or taking reduced hours. This country needs more people working, not less, in order to get the growth it needs to pay for services. We are not asking for the “childless” to bear our burden either, indeed it will be our children that will be supporting everyone in future years.

— PBG

After I went back from maternity leave, we tried working full-time as a couple. We spent £25,000 on a full-time nanny share to enable this, but weren’t satisfied with the quality. Eventually my husband gave up his full-time role for 18 months, and once my son started school he’s gone back into part-time work. But of all my friends who have children in opposite-sex couples, I am the only one whose husband was prepared to step back and support my career instead of his. I think we need to challenge the assumption of many men that they won’t be the one to step back.

— comment

We used to live in the UK, but moved to Sweden, one of the reasons being the expensive childcare.

In Sweden we pay circa £86 a month per child, and this includes three meals a day plus fruit, and the same goes in school.

Yes, taxes are high here (28-34% income tax), but so much is “free”, such as university and hospitals, while schools and nurseries cost very little. It’s stressful being a parent as it is, but to also have the economic stress is not fair on parents or children.

We hope the system in the UK will be reformed and modernised.

— A swede

Parents earning over £100,000 each are complaining about not getting government subsidies? Did you expect to be able to continue your life as before after you had kids?

If childcare costs £2,000 a month in central London then that’s what it costs. State subsidies are just other people paying for your kids. The carers also have to live in central London and pay for central London housing. If you want to pay less, you could move to places where normal people can also afford to live.

— pontificus maximus

The truth is that young children need looking after and as a society it only makes sense to encourage people to pay someone else to look after your child if you are significantly more productive in your job than you would be looking after your own child.

It makes no sense getting someone to look after your kid unless you are paid substantially more than the person paid to do so.

— Androcydes

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