Well, according to an annual survey undertaken by a leading life office*, the answer in the North West is actually £592.62 a week, or £30,816 a year, for a Mum, with Mum’s spending an average of 71 hours a week on chores, broken down as follows;
| Cooking |
8.5hrs |
| Cleaning |
11hrs |
| Housekeeping |
12hrs |
| Childcare |
30.5hrs |
| Driving |
4hrs |
| Shopping |
3.5hrs |
| Other |
1.5hrs |
| TOTAL |
71hrs |
All Dads will be pleased to know, as indeed I was, that we have a value too, it is however a little less at £426.27 a week or £22,166 a year, with ‘us’ spending an average of 53.5 hours a week on chores.
Further research, as if we didn’t know it, has also shown that being a parent and raising a child is expensive. Spending money on food, clothes, childcare and just essential items can average out at £154,440 over an 18 year period.
Well, that’s all relatively fine and dandy assuming we remain well and are able to work, but what happens if we have the heart-break of the death or serious illness of a spouse, what happens then?
Between 18th and 25th January this year a representative sample of adults with children aged from birth to age 18 completed a survey which showed that 81% believed that the state should provide for their family if a parent died, or suffered from a critical or terminal illness. Interestingly 59% admitted to not knowing what State Benefits they would receive if their partner died.
As I thought about this survey, I found myself thinking of additional ‘survey’ questions that could have been asked; how much protection do you have? How much protection do you have for your partner? How much do you think it would cost to provide a replacement income of £25,000 a year? Would you like to know what you need to do to ensure that your family is totally financially secure – whatever happens?
I suspect that these may have been much harder to answer, but in reality these are questions that we should all try and answer.
If this is something that concerns you, and you wish to plan to protect your family, give us a call.
(*) Carried out by L&G between 18th to 25th January 2013