The cost of a child in 2014

Today we publish our third annual report ‘The Cost of a Child in 2014’, written by Donald Hirsch from the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University and funded by JRF. It draws on the Minimum Income Standard project (MIS) to establish how much families need to cover their basic needs like food, clothes and shelter, and to participate in society.

The research shows that year on year, the cost of a child has been rising faster than inflation while support families receive from the state is falling.

As a result, it finds that families where both parents are working full time at the national minimum wage are now 18 per cent shy of the income required to support two children at a minimum level. For an out-of-work couple, the shortfall is even more alarming at 43 per cent.