Parents face huge bank holiday cost
THE ROYAL wedding bank holiday will cost parents a combined £206m for extra childcare, research out today reveals.
This year’s extended Easter break and back-to-back bank holidays will lead to £3.5bn in child-related costs, said insurer Liverpool Victoria (LV).
“With an average 13 weeks of school holidays a year, parents will feel pressured to find the cash to keep their kids entertained, and keep boredom at bay,” said LV’s Mark Jones.
Over a third (39 per cent) of parents reported that cost around this year’s school holidays are unaffordable, while around one in four (24 per cent) are looking at ways to cut back.
Children will have 64 days holiday from school this year, on average, LV said. Nearly half (49 per cent) of parents need to pay for childcare during these holidays.
Over all the school holidays this year, parents will spend £18.8bn on their offspring, equivalent to £1,429 per child.
Childcare accounts for £6.9bn of this – around £533 per child. Around £12bn goes towards keeping their children entertained, giving an average of £895 per child.
Raising a child from birth to the age of 21 costs an average of £210,000, according to LV’s Cost of a Child report.
And parents spend £8,147 of that total on holidays for their child in the first 21 years of their lives, the report found.
As the squeeze on parents takes hold, over half (55 per cent) of families reported that they will not have a holiday abroad this year, while 29 per cent will forego any break away in the UK, the report said.