Child care threat to poverty targets

The government needs to invest more heavily in child care to reach
its target for getting lone parents into work, warns a new
report.

The research, published by the Daycare Trust this week, argues that
if government investment into child care remains at its current
levels, ministers’ targets of getting 70 per cent of lone parents
into employment and ending child poverty by 2020 will not be
met.

Making Childcare Work finds that lone parents are
particularly affected by the lack of affordable child care
available for families on lower incomes.

The report says the average cost of child care is £128 a week,
while the average award through child care tax credits is around
£40 and shows no signs of increasing.

The cost of child care in central London is identified by the trust
as even higher, averaging £168 a week. Ken Livingstone, the
mayor of London, launched a draft child care strategy last week
which called for improvements in the benefit system to reflect the
higher living costs in London. 

– Making Childcare Work: Changing Childcare for a Better
Work-life Balance from 020 7840 3350.