Cost of living: Childcare

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Children aren’t cheap. The cost of living crisis is pushing parents to the edge of their finances, worrying about paying for essentials like food, clothing and, for many, childcare.

We’ll take a look at Chile, which according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), is one of the lowest ranking when it comes to public spending on early childhood education.

Natalia Aránguiz lives in Chile and has two children- she speaks to Leanna Byrne about her rising costs.

Ann Hedgepeth, chief of policy and advocacy at non-profit organisation Child Care Aware of America, says the national average price of childcare was around $10,600 per year. She says one of the main factors is getting the right staff.

Seven thousand miles away in Kampala in Uganda, one childcare business owner is facing the same issues. Manuela Mulondo is chief executive and founder of Cradle, a childcare, lactation and education centre. She says people never think about childcare companies when they are talking about price rises, but says it’s very expensive to look after children.

Presenter/producer: Leanna Byrne (Image: Child and parent. Credit: PA)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Love, Janessa, a brand new true crime podcast from the BBC World Service and CBC podcasts, exploring the world of online romance scams.
0:09.6	It's a story about love, deceit, and survival, and it's available now.
0:14.0	Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:19.7	Shh, shh, please stop crying. Rockerby, baby. Liana, did you forget to pick up the nappies?
0:27.0	Oh no, did I? Yes, you were supposed to buy them in bulk last time you went shopping. You know prices are going up.
0:33.8	They've gone up from £14.20 in May to £16.29 in November. Yeah, I'm sorry. I've just
0:40.0	been really tired. And don't tell me you forgot to buy Formula 2. Oh no. We need to buy them in bulk.
0:46.3	There's been supply issues which you know leads to rising prices. How do people do this?
0:52.4	Wait, people? Not me. I'm 31, childless and the only thing I'm responsible for
0:58.4	keeping alive for my houseplants, and you... Me? Yeah, you're not the dad. But let's get serious,
1:04.7	because that was obviously a reenactment of what it's like to be a parent right now. The only believable performance came from
1:13.4	the figures, the soaring prices. With the cost of living crisis, parents are really bearing the brunt
1:20.0	of these price rises. So in this episode of our cost of living series, we're going to look at the
1:25.8	rising cost of childcare.
1:29.6	Hello and welcome back to Business Daily in our Cost of Living series,
1:33.7	where we're looking at how rising prices are affecting you, your families and our businesses.
1:39.4	This is episode two, the price of parenting.
1:42.7	Children aren't cheap, but the cost of living crisis is pushing
1:46.4	parents to the edge of their finances, worrying about paying for essentials like food, clothing,
1:52.1	and for many, childcare. I speak to parents and parents advocacy groups across the world,
1:57.4	from the countries with governments that help them most with childcare and parental
2:01.6	support to those that contribute the least, and how these parents and childcare providers are coping.
	...

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