It sounds a bit insensitive, but anyone who has children at home knows that maintenance costs can sometimes be high. A child costs as much as a house, the cliché goes. But is that really so? In order to map out the real ‘child costs’, 3,818 families or single parents with children in Flanders were surveyed at the end of last year in a study commissioned by MyFamily. This is one of the five recognized payers of the Growth Package in Flanders, formerly known as child benefit.
The most important conclusion is that the average costs of Flemish families have increased by 28 percent in five years. An average Flemish family spent a total of 1,179 euros per month on their child(ren) in December last year, compared to 918 euros in 2018. This concerns attributable costs for food and drinks, clothing, care, (non-reimbursed) medical costs, telecom, free time or hobbies, but also school invoices, pocket money, a student room, holiday camps and gifts. The most expensive months are December, September and the summer months of July and August. For comparison: if you add the inflation of the past five years, you arrive at 19.5 percent.
Second child is ‘cheaper’
Striking: the average costs per child decrease as the family expands. At least, for the second child. “On average, a family with one child spends 916 euros per month on costs that are directly attributable. Families with two children spend about 300 euros more on these direct costs,” explains Guido Stassijns, director of MyFamily. Naturally, this varies depending on financial resources and family situation.
For families with three or four children, the costs per child do not decrease further: they spend a good 400 or 500 euros more per child, mainly due to the increasing age. “All children are older and so those costs are rising. These direct costs are in addition to the costs of housing, which we view as family costs,” Stassijns explains. And that housing has become significantly more expensive in the past five years. For the more than 3,800 respondents in the study, this amounts to an average of 1,375 euros per month, which is 16 percent higher than in 2018, which partly explains the increased costs per child.
The older, the more expensive
In general, the older the children, the higher the costs. For example, between the ages of 12 and 17, the costs of the first child increase to an average of 1,000 euros per month. From the age of 18, as a parent you can count on an average of more than 1,123 euros per month (for the first child). Higher studies and moving into a student room play a major role here. Parents with a child in a room spend an average of 522 euros more per month on renting the room.
Also not surprising: couples have a much easier time financially raising children than singles, the study shows. The average net family income (from work or replacement income, as well as allowances such as the Growth Package) varies from 2,648 euros for a single person with children to 4,722 euros for a couple.
