When Samantha Beech had her baby girl, she was considering heading back to her job as a teaching assistant on a part-time basis. She loved her work, and was hoping to return after taking statutory maternity leave.
However, when she and her husband crunched the numbers in 2021, they discovered that they could not afford childcare if Samantha even returned on a full-time basis; her entire monthly salary was dwarfed by nursery costs.
‘It didn’t seem worth the trade-off, that I would miss out on some of my daughter’s milestones to go to job that wouldn’t pay me enough,’ she tells Metro.
At the time, Samantha was just one of an estimated 11 million people who do not currently have jobs, but are not considered unemployed. They are classed as ‘economically inactive’ – unable to work due to illness, caring for family members, or unable to look for employment.
In December 2023, economic inactivity reached the highest levels in …