CEY1488
Written evidence submitted by Twins Trust
Twins Trust
Twins Trust is the only UK-wide charity dedicated to improving the lives of families with twins, triplets or more. Multiple birth families face unique challenges and we’re there for them, every step of the way. With over 40 years’ experience, we tailor our services to our families’ needs. We support and empower parents and professionals, invest in research and create systemic change to ensure the best possible outcomes for our families.
We are submitting to the inquiry because childcare issues – and particularly the costs – disproportionately impact our constituents: families with twins, triplets or more.
Introduction
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2019), childcare costs in the UK are the second most expensive in the world, with an average couple paying around 35.7% of their salaries, compared to under 5% in some other European countries. High childcare costs leave parents unable to work, negatively affecting the employment market. In addition, studies show that children can be disadvantaged if they are unable to access formal early years childcare. This multi-dimensional issue is having a detrimental impact across the UK, especially where there are two or more pre-school children in a family, as is the case for families with multiples - twins, triplets or more. The number of multiple births stands at around one in 65 births (2019 statistics) - this rose throughout the 2010s due to increasing numbers of women having children later and a rise in fertility treatment. These families face unique challenges and it is important that decision-makers reflect this in policy.
Cost of childcare
With the average cost of early years childcare outside London at around £41,100 per year for triplets and £27,400 for twins (Jarvie, Shorto and Parlett, 2021), and the average UK salary sitting at £31,400 per annum (Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2022), there is an urgent need for the Government to do more to support all families, but particularly families of multiples, enabling parents to return to work and children to benefit from formal childcare. Because of this equation, many parents with childcare responsibilities for multiples are unable to return to work.
Due to high childcare costs, multiples are less likely to attend early years childcare, certainly before funding becomes widely available at age three. This can affect development. The Department for Education’s Study of Early Education Use and Child Outcomes up to age three (SEED) states that childcare benefits development, impacting positively on educational, cognitive, behavioural and social outcomes.
The families supported by Twins Trust are less likely than the average UK household to have both parents working. Nine months after giving birth, mothers of multiple births are nearly 20% less likely to have returned to work than mothers of ‘singletons’ (University of Birmingham, 2010). It means that families are less able to work their way out of poverty. In addition, the longer gap between when a mother leaves the workforce and can return means that women have a harder time climbing the career ladder and fulfilling their personal potential and potential to contribute to the economy and growth.
Unlike other families, the costs of childcare cannot be spread across several years. If you have twins or triplets, there will only be one maternity leave and one maternity pay as opposed to having ‘singleton’ children where there will be a new maternity leave and pay for each child. Additionally, having twins or triplets means having to purchase two or three of most items. This means that finances are often already stretched even before the cost of childcare begins.
Many of the families who we support are not in work, which is a requirement to qualify for 30 hours free childcare. It’s a vicious cycle because parents must be in work to access the free childcare, but both parents can’t find work unless they have childcare, yet the families don’t have access to affordable childcare unless both parents are working. Because it’s so expensive to secure childcare before children turn three, many parents are not able to work before that point so won’t be able to qualify for the free hours.
Additionally, with the exorbitant cost of childcare, it doesn’t pay for both parents to work because in most cases the costs are greater than the (usually part-time) salary. It ends up costing more for parents to be working.
Many childcare providers are significantly increasing their 'additional’ costs (lunches, additional hours etc) to make up shortfalls in income. When these additional extra costs are coupled with the inflationary pressures on everyday items and the steep rise in mortgage rates, even those who can access the 30 hours are struggling. Of course, this is particularly pertinent for multiple birth families as they have to pay double / triple the costs and the costs cannot be staggered over a number of years, as when you have ‘singletons’.
Many parents (particularly single parents) cannot find employment that will be flexible enough to work for the family whilst earning below the amount to qualify for the government’s free childcare, leaving them cast adrift. The free childcare and education for 2-year-olds helps some of the poorest families, but isn’t sufficient to raise families above the poverty line. There are many families who are just slightly over the threshold to qualify for the 2-year-old childcare allowance, but cannot afford to send their children to childcare. Once again, having to pay double or triple costs is prohibitive.
As there’s no statutory childcare support for parents of 1-year-olds, many women will already have been out of the workplace for at least two or three years by the time they can get access to government support for childcare. By that point, it’s hard to re-enter the workplace.
Here’s what parents of multiples told us:
“I am returning to work for 3 days and my twins are in nursery for 3 days. The cost of childcare means that I will basically just be working to pay for childcare but I would rather do this than lose my job. My husband earns over the threshold for child benefit (which sounds like he is a high earner) but when you take into the cost of our mortgage and bills and supporting 3 children without my income now it is worrying. It is crazy that working parents have to wait so long for free childcare hours yet everything is pushing towards people having to work. Twin costs are unexpected and so many more financial pressures are not being taken into consideration for parents of multiples.”
“We had budgeted for 1... childcare for two is more than my wages but without my wages we couldn’t afford our mortgage or bills. We are genuinely having to debate downsizing the house we worked so hard for and it seems debt is our only option”.
“I’m a doctor expecting twins. If childcare isn’t made more affordable, I won’t be able to return to work. What a waste of training to an NHS that’s already struggling”
“I’m a single mother to twins and I’m literally on the poverty line. I’m stuck now trying to find a part time job so that I can access the 30 hours funded childcare but I’m struggling to find something that fits us”.
“Paying for 2 children to attend full time childcare outweighs the average salary! The maths is simple. How can we keep our job, pay our bills and pay £2000 per month for 2 babies to go into childcare full time.”
“I’m a single mum and a nurse working shifts. I currently use breakfast and after school club and babysitters which is crippling me. Holiday clubs are unaffordable. Not sure how much longer I can continue working shifts.”
“With twins plus an older sibling who was 2.5 years when they were born, the cost of childcare for 3 children would have been more than I earned. To go back to work would also have eaten into my husband’s salary and so I became a stay-at-home mum a year ago (twins now nearly 2, older sibling 4). My twins can start at preschool from September, but will not receive any government funding until the following Easter. Because I am not currently working they will only receive 15 hours which is not enough for me to be able to consider returning to work. Once I have been away from my job for 2 years I will lose my professional registration with the HCPC. But I cannot foresee being able to return to work for the next couple of years at least. I’ve worked for 10 years in the NHS but for now at least, I fear my career has come to a halt.”
Psychological impact
Parents in multiple birth families are more likely to experience relationship breakdown (University of Birmingham, 2010); financial difficulties can be a contributory factor. In these circumstances, the children miss life opportunities, while many mothers report their absence from the workplace undermines their careers and they never recover.
As parents told us:
“I was a primary school teacher of 8 years. If I went back to teaching with twins I would have been paying the childcare more than my wage. I stayed at home despite wanting to work. I suffered postnatal depression and exhaustion not entirely due to this but in part I feel due to the fact I had so little control over my own life. I can't see myself going back to teaching now as it feels so long ago. This whole predicament lost another teacher whilst there’s a teacher shortage...”
“I had to give up a career as a maths teacher when I had my twins - childcare was £5 more each day than my pay… before any costs associated with either! I would have had to pay to go to work. The break will impact me forever - during this time they changed the pension rules so I went from final salary to career average. I did try to go back, but starting at the beginning again (both experience and pay) was too difficult without support.”
Unique challenges for multiples
Several research studies show that multiples present unique challenges that are not present even when siblings are close in age, leaving parents feeling overwhelmed and unable to give their children the physical, mental and emotional stimulation that a single baby would receive. This has the potential to cause developmental delays. Twins and triplets are more likely to experience delayed learning, largely due to their increased risk of prematurity. This can exacerbate the issues detailed above, leaving multiples at a disadvantage.
Around 60% of twins and all triplets are premature. Triplets are almost always delivered by c-section at around 32 or 33 weeks. Premature children face a number of hurdles. Bliss, the charity for premature children, has the following information:
As such, the unaffordability of childcare and therefore the exclusion of many multiples from early years education adds to these developmental hurdles. Many multiples are already disadvantaged because they are premature and the difficulty in accessing early years education compounds the disadvantage.
Triplets
Triplets are particularly in need of extra support around childcare. This is from the perspective of the care-giver and the children. A combination of personal, social, financial and emotional needs, along with triplets’ prematurity, means that triplet families (and higher order multiples) need even greater support.
Bringing up three children of the same age is challenging; physically, emotionally and financially. Worryingly, there are signs of serious prevailing mental health issues among parents: perinatal mental illness affects up to 20% of new and expectant mothers, according to the NHS, and more in areas with high levels of deprivation.
If a triplet family finds themselves in the fortunate position of not requiring any state benefits to survive, once childcare is taken into account, the costs become exorbitant and unmanageable for these families.
Triplets do not have the upbringing equivalent to a singleton child. There is simply not the time nor the capacity to provide three youngsters with all the attention and stimulation they require – which is why pre-school care is so important.
Families’ evidence:
One Twins Trust member with 22-month-old twins:
“My husband and I are not on low salaries, yet we are having to take £400 out of savings every month just to pay for groceries, as our twins attend nursery 3 days a week.
It worked out that we would be about £150 worse off per month if I had returned to work full time, rather than work the three days that I do now, as we would have lost child benefit and tax-free childcare only covers up to £500 every three months per child. Even with tax-free childcare support - and a 20% sibling discount - our childcare fees cost £1,400 a month for our twins to attend nursery 3 days a week. If we had put the twins in full time nursery it would have cost about £3,000 a month, equating to £36,000 a year! We have no family support and so have no choice but to rely on paid childcare so that we can work.
I often sit up at night stressed about running out of money, and also stressed that our wonderful nursery is going to go bankrupt due to being severely underfunded as costs rise. As everything goes up in price, I'm constantly trying to work out how to make our dwindling savings last.
Other families I know are struggling to pay for their singleton child's childcare; how on earth are parents of multiples expected to cope without additional government support? We are counting down the months to when our twins turn three (15 months left...), as it will get significantly cheaper then.”
Mother with 11-month-old twins:
“I have a three year-old and 11-month-old twins, all in a private nursery 4 days a week. We made the decision to send the twins as we want to give them all the same experiences our eldest had.
The only way we can do it is because I put enough money in the tax-free childcare account to pay for our eldest during mat leave so now effectively only pay for the twins.
Paying for them is pretty much my whole salary but we still decided it was the better option as otherwise we'd be spending more on petrol, gas, electricity and going to different groups with no income coming in if I'd have stayed home. Either way money will be tight for the next few years.
Mentally I don't think I would cope being a stay-at-home mum as it is hard having twins. I'd feel cooped up in the house and the twins would not thrive socially or emotionally.
I understand that childcare is a business and that they need the money to pay for goods and staff but soon people won't be able to afford it and they'll price themselves out unless salaries are increased or there is more to support parents. Parents need to be back in work to gain their identity and children need to be around other children so that they can learn from them and form new bonds, grown in confidence and not always be by the side of their parents. It helps everyone if children can have access to childcare.”
January 2023