A report on the cost of raising children in Australia has revealed substantial increases over the past 20 years.
Published by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS), the latest estimates show the weekly cost of raising a child as $140 for unemployed families and $170 for low-paid families.
The Institute notes the costs of bringing up children are of intense interest to both families and policy makers.
Director of AIFS, Anne Hollonds, said families were interested because the cost of raising children affected their wellbeing and the decisions they made about managing the burden of care and policy makers needed robust information to inform family policies, including the adequacy of minimum incomes.
She said the research was carried out by the University of NSW’s Social Policy Research Centre using a ‘budget standards’ approach to estimate the cost of children’s food, clothing and footwear, health, personal care and school expenses and their share of household expenses like housing, household goods and services (including energy) and transport costs.
Leader of the research team, Peter Saunders (pictured) said the ‘budget standards’ approach identified and then costed all the items needed to achieve a minimum income standard for healthy living in Australia today.
“The study found the estimated weekly costs for low-paid families of raising two children – a six- year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy – is $340 per week, or $170 a week per child,” Professor Saunders said.
“At the lower unemployed standard, the weekly cost of raising two children is $280 per week, or $140 a week per child.”
He said the most expensive budget items were housing costs, followed by food, household goods and services.
“Other, shared costs include the additional energy bills required to keep the home adequately warm and transport costs associated with ferrying children to school and activities,” Professor Saunders said.
He said the new estimates of the cost of children were considerably higher than those produced by updating the original budget standards created in 1995 because prevailing community standards had shifted upwards.
The nine-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.
