'I'm working to afford daycare': Parents struggle with rising cost of childcare

Tuesday, 26 March 2019

Lauren Williams says she sometimes feels like she's working to pay for daycare for her son, Adrian.

Parents around the country are being hit with increasingly large bills for early childhood education and childcare.

Lauren Williams, who works three days a week in a bank, spends $160.33 a week on childcare for her 15-month-old son. It works out at about a third of what she earns.

She lives with her husband halfway between Whangarei and Dargaville, where he runs a dry stock farm. Even with his wage alone they do not qualify for any subsidies or tax credits.

'What I struggle with as a working mum is paying full price where there are subsidies available for people with no income. I totally believe every mum deserves a break but I have to work to even afford day care.'

* Stop judging us for putting our kids in daycare, parents say

* Here's what you need to know about childcare**

It was predicted the sector would turn over $1.1 billion in revenue this financial year.

Jess Sutton can understand her frustration. She, too, is spending a third of what she earns on care for her younger child. Her three-year-old son gets 20 hours subsidised by the Government but she still has to pay $705 every four weeks. It was $1000 before he turned three.

'It's the second-biggest expense to come out of my monthly salary. The first is food.'

She said it was more expensive now than it was when her older child, now 12, was a pre-schooler.

In 2017, parents of children in daycares, preschools and creche were paying an average $156.89 a week for care, in addition to what they received from the Government in the 20 hours' subsidy.

Home-based was a little cheaper, at $148.18 a week.

Fees rose 34 per cent in the nine years to 2017, about twice the rate of general inflation.

Jess Sutton says childcare is her second-biggest expense.

In 2009, the parents of only 17 per cent of kids were paying more than $101 a week.

Rrahul Dosshi, managing director of The Rainbow Corner early learning centres, and new owner of Porse, said it was a problem for parents throughout New Zealand.

His business allocates 10 per cent of its places to offer to families who need free childcare.

'We work with the local communities we operate in to identify families in need. Many are new immigrants to New Zealand who are without a support system, others may be marginalised families.'

He said many families were dealing with a lot of expenses all at once - those who had migrated to New Zealand were struggling to pay for a home, find a job and deal with childcare.

More Government help was needed to support families looking for early childhood education, he said.

Research firm IbisWorld said childcare was the biggest sector of growth in what it cost to raise children over the past give years.

'Ongoing early childhood education funding and growth in household incomes has permitted parents and guardians to make greater use of child care facilities, which in turn has driven strong growth in fees for services,' said analyst Hayley Munro-Smith.

She said the sector was expected to turn over $1.1 billion in revenue this financial year.

A spokesperson for Education Minister Chris Hipkins said childcare was not the same as early childhood education (ECE).

'For ECE, the government subsidises children attending childcare up to 30 hours per week. The Government pays the funding to services, most of whom also charge fees or seek other contributions from parents.

'In our first Budget, we delivered the first universal cost adjustment for early learning services since 2008 when we were last in Government, plus an additional 62.5 million early learning hours over the next four year to meet the growth in demand, and reduce pressure on service quality and prices.'

* Comments on this article have closed.