The annual Cost of a Child Report [1] from protection and retirement specialist LV=, reveals the cost of raising a child from birth to their 21st birthday now totals a record £218,024. This equates to £10,382 a year, £865 a month or £28.44 a day.

Overall cost
The report shows that the overall cost of raising a child has increased by 3.3 per cent in the last year, with education and childcare remaining the biggest expenditures, costing parents a massive £71,780 and £62,099 respectively. The cost of education, including school uniforms, after-school clubs and university tuition fees, has experienced the biggest rise, with a 5 per cent increase in spending over the past year.

The overall cost of raising a child has increased by 55 per cent since LV=’s first Cost a Child Report in 2003.

Not protecting the family’s future
Some 50 per cent of parents don’t have any life cover or income protection in place. Just a third (32 per cent) of parents have life cover and only 11 per cent have both life cover and income protection.

Long-term picture
When considering ways to ease the family budget, it is important that you keep in mind the long-term picture. Cancelling life cover or income protection, for instance, as a short-term measure to save money can have catastrophic implications if either parent were unable to work or weren’t around in the future.

Parents don’t begrudge the money
Despite an uncertain UK economy forcing more pressure on the family budget, it’s clear that parents don’t begrudge the money they spend on their children, and would rather do without themselves than radically cut back on what they can provide for their children.

Source – [1] The Cost of a Child Report calculations, from birth to 21 years, have been compiled by the Centre for
Economics and Business Research (CEBR) on behalf of LV= in December 2011 and are based on the cost for the 21-year period to December 2011. The report also includes omnibus research conducted for LV= by Opinion Research from 3-5 January 2012. The total sample size was 2,119 UK adults. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria.