The Cost of a Child in 2025

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 £250,000 for a couple and £290,000 for a lone parent.
• All family types we look at in the report are struggling – most in-work families do not have enough income to cover basic costs, while out-of-work families are particularly far away from being able to meet these costs (an out-of-work couple with two children can only cover 37 per cent of their basic costs).
• Families can cover far less of the cost of children than in 2008. The key driver of this is cuts to the social security system. Costs have risen much faster than increases to the social security system (ie, families have seen a real-terms cut to social security), affecting all family types.
• Families with three children fare particularly badly – a lone parent working full time on the minimum wage can only cover 51 per cent of basic costs (or 60 per cent if they work full time on the median wage).
• The key driver of larger families struggling more is the two-child limit. Costs are similar for each additional child, while the support provided through social security is much lower for third and subsequent children.