Childcare Costs

Extracted Attributes

• UK Social Security System

  Universal Credit

• Universal Credit Payment Frequency

  Monthly

• Factors Influencing Childcare Costs

  Age of child, location, type of care

• Location of 'childcare costs element'

  United Kingdom

• Universal Credit Initial Waiting Period

  At least five weeks

• US Average Annual Childcare Cost (per child)

  $6,500 to $15,600

• New York Annual Childcare Cost (two children)

  Over $36,000

• New York Childcare Cost as % of Family Income

  Up to 27%

• Highest US State Childcare Expenses (2022 dollars)

  Washington, D.C. ($24,243), Massachusetts ($20,913), California ($16,945), Minnesota ($16,087), Connecticut ($15,501), New York ($15,394), Maryland ($15,335), Colorado ($15,325), Washington ($14,554), Virginia ($14,063)

• Federal Childcare Affordability Benchmark (Proposed)

  7% of household income

• US Childcare Cost as % of Median Family Income (2023)

  ~15%

• Universal Credit Implementation Cost (Later Estimate)

  Over £12 billion

• Federal Childcare Affordability Benchmark (Historical)

  <10% of household income

• Universal Credit Implementation Cost (Initial Forecast)

  Around £2 billion

• US Median Full-time, Center-based Infant Care Cost (2023)

  $1,200 per month

• US Childcare Cost as % of Median Family Income (2022 dollars)

  8% to 19.3%

• US Childcare Cost Increase (past 25 years, inflation-adjusted)

  41%

Timeline

• Universal Credit policy announced at the Conservative Party annual conference by Iain Duncan Smith. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2010

• A government white paper on Universal Credit was published. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2010-11

• Universal Credit was legislated for in the Welfare Reform Act. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2012

• The new Universal Credit benefit began to be rolled out gradually to Jobcentres. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2013

• Original expectation for more than three million recipients of legacy benefits to have transferred to Universal Credit (not met). (Source: Wikipedia)

  2017

• One million people were receiving less than their Universal Credit entitlement, often due to repayment of loans given during the initial five-week wait period. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2019-05

• The Department for Work and Pensions started full-scale migration of legacy benefits to Universal Credit. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2023

• The median cost for full-time, center-based infant care in the US totaled $1,200 a month. (Source: web_search_results)

  2023

• All claimants (except those on income-based ESA or income-based ESA and housing benefit) are expected to begin migrating to Universal Credit. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2024-09

• The full move of legacy benefit recipients to Universal Credit is expected to be completed by at least this year. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2028

Universal Credit

Universal Credit is a United Kingdom based social security payment. It is means-tested and is replacing and combining six benefits, for working-age households with a low income: income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), and Income Support; Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Working Tax Credit (WTC); and Housing Benefit. An award of UC is made up of different elements, which become payable to the claimant if relevant criteria apply: a standard allowance for singles or couples, child elements and disabled child elements for children in the household, housing cost element, childcare costs element, as well as elements for being a carer or for having limited capability to work-related activities, due to illness or disability. The new policy was announced in 2010 at the Conservative Party annual conference by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, who said it would make the social security system fairer to claimants and taxpayers. At the same venue the Welfare Reform Minister, Lord Freud, emphasised the scale of their plan, saying it was a "once in many generations" reform. A government white paper was published in November 2010. A key feature of the proposed new benefit was that unemployment payments would taper off as the recipient moved into work, not suddenly stop, thus avoiding a "cliff edge" that was said to "trap" people in unemployment. Universal Credit was legislated for in the Welfare Reform Act 2012. In 2013, the new benefit began to be rolled out gradually to Jobcentres, initially focusing on new claimants with the least complex circumstances: single people who were not claiming for the cost of their accommodation. There were problems with the early strategic leadership of the project and with the IT system on which Universal Credit relies. Implementation costs, initially forecast to be around £2 billion, later grew to over £12 billion. More than three million recipients of the six older "legacy" benefits were expected to have transferred to the new system by 2017, but under current plans the full move will not be completed until at least 2028. The Department for Work and Pensions started full-scale migration in 2023 and by September 2024, all claimants other than claimants on income-based ESA or income-based ESA and housing benefit, will begin migrating to Universal Credit. One specific concern is that payments are made monthly, with a waiting period of at least five weeks (originally six) before the first payment, which can particularly affect claimants of Housing Benefit and lead to rent arrears (although claimants can apply for emergency loans paid more promptly). In May 2019, one million people were receiving less than their entitlement, often due to the repayment of loans given during the initial five-week wait period.

Web Search Results

• Cost Of Child Care In New York: A Breakdown for 2025 - TOOTRiS

  $2,990 per month for full-time Child Care in a center-based setting is (equivalently, $920 for a 40-hour work week or $23.00 per hour). $2,958 per month for full-time infant care in a center-based setting (equivalently, $910 per week or $22.75 per hour). Yonkers residents have amedian monthly income of $6,818 and amedian rent of $2,455. Syracuse Child Care [...] $3,045 per month for full-time Child Care in a center-based setting is (equivalently, $937 for a 40-hour work week or $23.42 per hour). $3,097 per month for full-time infant care in a center-based setting (equivalently, $953 per week or $23.82 per hour). Mount Vernon’smedian household income is about $6,430 a month, andrent is $2,000 on average. Schenectady Child Care [...] Child Care can eat up to 27% of a New York family’s income—almost four times the federal affordability benchmark of 7%. Two children alone can cost you over $36,000 a year. Costs vary drastically by city, with monthly prices sometimes soaring beyond $3,000 in places like Mount Vernon. Urban hotspots skew state averages, while smaller or rural areas might slightly lower the bill.

• Explaining America's Child Care Problem | Third Way

  Child care costs can vary greatly for families based on the age of the child, where they live, and the type of care they are paying for. On average, parents spend between $6,500 to $15,600 per child for one year of child care.3 [...] Child care costs continue to eat up more and more of families’ budgets. Our recent analysis found that, in inflation-adjusted terms, the average cost of child care has climbed 41% in the past 25 years.4 The median cost for full-time, center-based infant care totaled $1,200 a month in 2023—roughly 15% of the median family’s monthly income.5 Families with lower incomes are likely putting an even bigger share of their earnings toward child care.6

• Rising Cost of Child Care Services a Challenge for Working Parents

  A brief drawing of available data across 47 states show child care prices for a single child ranged from $4,810 a year for school-age home-based care in small counties to $15,417 for infant center-based care in very large counties. When adjusted for inflation, this equals between $5,357 and $17,171 in 2022 dollars. These price ranges were equivalent to between 8% and 19.3% of median family income per child in paid care. [...] The National Database of Childcare Prices, which reports child care costs in 2,360 U.S. counties, shows that child care expenses are untenable for families throughout the country and highlights the urgent need for greater federal investments, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. [...] The Economic Policy Institute ranked the top 10 states or state equivalents with the highest child care expenses for preschool, infant care, and day care: 1. Washington, D.C. ($24,243) 2. Massachusetts ($20,913) 3. California ($16,945) 4. Minnesota ($16,087) 5. Connecticut ($15,501) 6. New York ($15,394) 7. Maryland ($15,335) 8. Colorado ($15,325) 9. Washington ($14,554) 10. Virginia ($14,063)

• Child Care Cost Burden | County Health Rankings & Roadmaps

  5. Mattingly MJ, Schaefer AP, Carson JA. 2016. Child care costs exceed 10 percent of family income for one in four families. Durham: The Carsey School of Public Policy, University of New Hampshire. 2016: National Issue Brief No. 109. 6. Living Wage Institute, Inc. 2025. Living Wage Benchmark Series. [...] The Living Wage Institute established child care costs for each county based on county-level data from 2008 to 2022 from the Department of Labor Women’s Bureau’s National Database of Childcare Prices and state-level data from Child Care Aware of America’s 2022 annual price of childcare report that was varied down to the county-level.6 This is an improvement on other widely available sources of child care cost data, which only report costs at the state level, or the county level in select [...] Difficulty affording child care is not a problem that is isolated to families with low-incomes. The Department of Health and Human Services has historically considered child care affordable if the expense consumes less than 10% of household income, and more recently proposed an affordability threshold set at 7% of household income.4 In many locations in the U.S., the child care expenses for families that earn the median income is higher than 10%. In 2016, one out of four U.S. families (1.4

• Net childcare costs

  Net childcare costs are calculated for both couples and lone parents assuming two children aged 2 and 3, both attending a childcare centre full-time. For this indicator, couples include one parent earning 67% of the average wage and the other earning minimum wage. Single parents earn 67% of the average wage. This indicator is measured as percentage of household disponsable income and average wage. Youth Youth employment and social policies Employability Employment Society