Cost-of-living crisis: one in five parents spend less on books for their children

theguardian.com:

One in five parents and carers are spending less on books for their children because of the cost-of-living crisis, and a quarter have asked children to borrow more books from the school library, new research has found.

The research, which surveyed more than 3,000 parents and carers across Great Britain, also found that the cost-of-living crisis is having a concerning impact on children’s education, with one in six respondents to the survey saying their child was struggling more at school now compared with 12 months ago.

While around 20% of parents and carers overall said they were spending less on books for their children as a result of the increasing cost of living, this increased to 36% for families who felt that they were struggling financially with the increase in the cost of living.

The research is from the National Literacy Trust (NLT) and digital bank Chase, and was conducted by YouGov. It looked at reading habits as well as spending on books, finding that 10% of parents and carers said they were too stressed to read to their child because of economic pressures. This figure almost doubled to 19% when it came to parents and carers who deemed themselves as struggling financially.

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Jonathan Douglas, chief executive of the NLT, said: “We know that experiencing poverty and financial strain impacts children’s literacy – with families not being able to afford books and having less time and energy to spend reading, writing and talking to their children at home.”

According to the research, around 40% of families say they are struggling financially, leading to lower