Grandparents save parents over £4,000 a year in childcare costs

Hands-on Grandparents save their children a staggering £4,330.92 in childcare fees every year, Skipton Building Society research has shown.

A detailed study we carried out among 1,298 parents shows they rely on the grandparents to look after their children for 1,122 hours a year while they go out to work.

If parents were to pay for 1,122 hours at their local nursery instead, they could be forking out £3.86 per hour and over four thousand pounds annually.

A quarter of those we polled admitted they wouldn't be able to hold down their current job without the help of their own parents, while 46 per cent claim it wouldn't be worth them going to work if their mums and dads didn't help out.

Stacey Stothard, Skipton's Corporate Communications Manager, commented: "As this study clearly indicates, modern day grandparents are an absolute god-send for working mums and dads.

"Despite reaching an age where they should be winding down and enjoying their retirement years, grandparents end up almost ‘working' for their own children, making it possible for them to earn a living, safe in the knowledge that their little ones are well cared for.

"And as we can see, a grandparent's help is invaluable. Not only do they provide a safe and caring environment for the grandchildren to grow up in, but they save thousands of pounds in childcare fees every single year.

"They also provide the kind of flexibility which parents would be hard-pushed to find with any nursery or child-carer."

Our study also revealed that, during term time, for 39 weeks of the year, grandparents will help out on three days of the week for at least 5.5 hours a time.

This means they are acting child-carers for 16.5 hours a week or 643.5 hours over the course of 39 weeks.

For the remaining 13 weeks of the year - the school holidays - the grandchildren will be looked after by their doting grandparents for a further 32 days, for an average of seven hours a time.

In addition, mum and dad will request a further four babysitting occasions every month, for just over five hours - equating to 255 hours and 12 minutes over the course of one year.

This means that, by the time a child reaches school age, they will have been babysat by their grandparents for 5,610 hours, saving parents an incredible £21,654.60.

Stacey added: "Families, more than ever, are under financial pressure. And it can be a really tough balancing act trying to maintain a manageable income while arranging childcare.

"Willing grandparents will not only look after poorly children - when nurseries will often turn them away with any illness that might be contagious - but they'll also often provide food and snacks, take kids for days out, and don't fret if parents are running late collecting them at the end of the day.

"Grandparents who look after their grandchildren in the family home are often even on hand to help with the running of the home - helping to do household chores, as well as being in to sign for parcel deliveries and pay the window cleaner or milkman.

"But with this flexibility and financial benefit for parents, sometimes comes a feeling of obligation for grandparents. At a time when young families are feeling the squeeze so too are their parents, who are facing the prospect of reduced retirement income and financial uncertainty.

"Many may feel that, although they want to help out, they could actually do with having some time for paid work themselves. It's clear there's a social step change occurring, and perhaps the two generations need to meet in the middle to discuss solutions that work well for both."

Our survey found that six in 10 parents prefer asking the grandparents to help out with childcare rather than paying a nursery or child-minder.

And 46 per cent of these claim that, as well as the cost benefits, they simply don't trust anyone else to look after their child.

But four in 10 mums and dads do feel guilty about how much they rely on their own parents for help, and a third worry that they are getting too old to deal with energetic grandchildren.

Indeed, while six in 10 parents are choosing to bury their heads in the sand and refuse to think about what might happen when their own parents get to the point where they can't look after the children anymore, a further 33 per cent are resigned to the fact they will eventually have to give up work to look after their own children.

For more information, visit skipton.co.uk.