Parents make sacrifices to cover the high costs of child-rearing

It finds that parents provide 90 per cent of the spending on 'regular' items such as food, clothing, childcare, activities and holidays. But relatives, friends and older children themselves also contribute to the total, especially grandparents who provide an average of £115 a year for each child.

The study, based on a major survey of the lifestyles and living standards of more than 1,200 children, shows that even in low income families average spending on children is only slightly less than for children as a whole. Parents commonly prefer to sacrifice spending on themselves, rather than see their children go without.

Even so, the survey identifies one in ten children defined as 'poor' because their parents cannot afford at least three of the things that most other families take for granted - such as having three meals a day, sleeping in a bed of their own and wearing shoes bought new and properly fitted. One in thirty children are defined as 'severely poor' because they go without five or more of these necessities.

However, many more children would be deprived without the efforts that parents make to protect them from the worst effects of life on a low income. As many as 85 per cent of mothers say they sometimes go without clothes, shoes, holidays or their own entertainment in order to provide for their children. And one in 20 mothers sometimes go without food to ensure their children have enough to eat.

As a result, the survey found a notably higher proportion of parents who are poorer than their children. One in six are deprived of three or more items that a majority of adults consider essential - including one in 14 who go without five or more such necessities.

Children and state benefits

• Among its key findings, the survey highlights a serious mismatch between official assumptions about the costs of child-rearing and actual spending by parents. Allowances for children within Income Support are not only far below the national average for child-related spending, but also cover only 70 per cent of spending on children whose parents are receiving benefit.
• Income Support allowances for the costs of children under 11 appear especially inadequate. Although older children have slightly more spent on them than younger children, the difference is not as great as the social security system assumes. The age differentials used in Family Credit and foster care allowances are also far greater than revealed in actual spending patterns.
• Child Benefit - currently paid to all families with dependent children - covers around one fifth of the average costs of child-rearing.

How the costs add up

• Food is by far the biggest single item of spending on children. The cost of feeding children in families receiving Income Support typically accounts for 63 per cent of their total child-related allowance.
• Parents spend significant sums on their children's education - an average of nearly £6 a week for each child at secondary school. Payments cover items that might be seen as an integral part of the curriculum, including books, school trips and extra lessons.
• The average cost of childcare up to a child's 17th birthday is about £3,500 or £4 a week. Costs for working parents who are most likely to use formal childcare (as opposed to family and friends) are much higher at an average of £30 a week.
• Secondary school-age girls spend over three times more on telephone calls than boys.
• Children, on average, receive presents worth over £250 at Christmas, of which more than a third come from people other than their parents.
• Children living with lone parents receiving Income Support have almost as much spent on them, on average, as other children.
• Whether children have working parents has a greater impact on average spending levels than whether they live in a one or two parent family. However, much of the higher spending on children by working parents goes to cover the costs of alternative childcare.

Sue Middleton, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University and co-author of the study said: "Parents know from their own experience that bringing up children is expensive and demanding. But this study makes it clear that policy makers - especially those responsible for the tax and benefit systems - need to improve their understanding of what it costs to be a parent.

"Our survey findings suggest that the costs of younger children, in particular, are seriously under-estimated in benefit calculations. But they also raise the question of how far it is reasonable to expect low-income parents to make sacrifices on their own food and necessities in order to prevent their children from going without."