The Cost of a Child in 2024

CPAG’s annual Cost of a Child report looks at how much it costs families to provide a minimum socially acceptable standard of living for their children. It is calculated using the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) research, carried out by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 

• The cost of raising a child to age 18 is £260,000 for a couple and £290,000 for a lone parent. 
• In-work families are struggling. A lone parent with two children working full time on the minimum wage can only cover 69 per cent of the cost of a child, while a similar couple can only cover 84 per cent. 
• Out-of-work families are struggling even more. An out-of-work family with two children has less than half the income required to meet the cost of a minimum acceptable standard of living (39 per cent in a couple family, 44 per cent in a lone parent family). 
• Families are further away from reaching a decent standard of living than at any point since this research began. All family types have the lowest share of costs covered since this series started in 2008. 
• For families in work, the shortfall is particularly stark for larger families. For a lone parent on the minimum wage with three children, the share covered falls to 45 per cent (63 per cent for a couple on the minimum wage with three children). 
• The key driver of these alarming figures is that costs have risen much faster than income via social security for all family types (ie, there have been real-terms cuts to social security). 
• The shortfalls for in-work families outlined above highlight how work, on its own, is not sufficient to enable families to reach a basic standard of living and social security plays a crucial role.