As well as the basic issue of week-on-week affordability, there are also many low-income families whose budgets are so finely balanced that any minor crisis can drive them out of childcare, and therefore work.
Recent calls to our helpline illustrate how fragile the balance is for many families.
One caller was a mother from a low-income family who had been offered a good job that she very much wanted. She had found a nursery place for her daughter but the nursery needed two weeks' up-front fees. For this family, this was completely impossible as, until the mother starts work and gets paid, there is no money to spare.
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