Low-paid more likely to stop work to care for children

A survey has found that those who can least afford to stop work and take on parenting full-time are more likely to do so because of a lack of affordable childcare.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's (CIPD) survey 'Work, Parenting and Careers 2002', revealed that 22% of parents with an annual household income of below £20,000 had given up work completely, compared to 10% of parents with an household income above £20,000.

While nearly 60% of higher earning parents - those households with earnings over £40, 000 per year - reported that they are working exactly the same number of hours.

The cost of childcare remains an important issue for working parents - only one in four of the parents viewed the costs, up to £7,500 per annum, as acceptable.

The CIPD's adviser on Diversity, Dianah Worman, said: "The Government faces a number of challenges, including the need to both raise productivity and eradicate child poverty. At the moment it seems that lower income workers are left without much choice - not helpful in the face of the wider social and economic agenda.

"While the government has made some progress, with more subsidised childcare places and tax credits for those on lower incomes, this is not enough. The reality is that more and more parents cannot afford to pay, leaving women with little choice other than to drop out of the labour market. Childcare provision must be given even greater government priority for the good of the economy and the wider community.

"We talk about the need to gain a better work life balance. This is still an irrelevance for those on lower incomes."

The survey showed that 52% of parents believed that becoming a parent has affected their career. This belief was particularly likely to be held by women (72%), with 28% of women indicating that they had actively downgraded their career since having children, while only 9% of men interviewed have done so.

Nearly half of the 503 respondents had changed their job or role since becoming a parent. Women are twice as likely as men to cite family commitments or a lack of family friendly policies as a primary reason for the change.

Women are three times more likely to have changed their working patterns than men, with only one in five continuing to work the same hours as previously. Of those parents interviewed 54% did not have the option of flexible working hours such as flexi-time, job-sharing, or annualised hours.

Almost three-quarters of working parents felt that their employer did not offer sufficient financial support for working parents. Parents tend to feel that they receive more support and understanding from their direct colleagues than their employers.

(SP)