The cost of a child in 2020

Our annual cost of a child report, which we have produced since 2012, looks at what items families need to provide a minimum socially acceptable standard of living for their children. 

In the UK, an additional 2.8 million people successfully claimed universal credit (UC) between January and July this year, either because their earnings were reduced or because they lost their jobs. The government’s furlough and self‐employed income support schemes, while maintaining incomes and protecting many, were not enough to prevent unemployment from more than doubling in the first two months of lockdown. The government is also paying an extra £20 a week to people on UC, as well as to those on working tax credits. That will slightly soften the blow for those losing their jobs, but £20 does not get anywhere close to compensating for the earnings loss or to closing the wide gap between the level of out‐of‐work benefits and the true cost of raising a child.