Raising a child 'costs £218,000'

The typical cost of raising a child to the age of 21 has risen to £218,000, with education, childcare and food making the biggest dents in parents' budgets, a report has found.

Parents spend around £10,382 a year, £865 a month and £28.44 a day on their child's upbringing, insurer and retirement specialist LV= said in its Cost of a Child study, as it warned that families were unlikely to see the pressure ease in the near future.