Photo: John-Francis Bourke/ Corbis
School's almost out. So how will you cope with the cost of the summer holidays this year?
The price of childcare during the summer break has on average risen to £87.43 a child a week in the UK, and more than £100 in the east and south-east of England, according to the Daycare Trust. That's an increase of 10% since last year.
The median UK salary stands at £457 a week for full-time workers, according to the Office of National Statistics. So the average working parent paying for childcare for two children will say goodbye to around two fifths of his or her salary.
Parents are already obliged to pay a premium if they want to go away during the holidays, and reports suggest that costs will only get higher as the price of fuel grows, which means taking the children away for a week or two is an expensive way of ducking out of childcare costs.
So how are you planning to cover the cost of the summer holidays? Do you think more should be done to help parents when the end of term comes?
