CISF director (International Family Studies Center)
The recent data of Moneyfarm on the cost of children are a precious opportunity for some more general reflection, which allows you to get out of the simple economic evaluation. The proposed estimates speak of An average total cost of 156,000 euros to raise a child from 0 to 18 yearswith a very large gap between a minimum of 107,000 and a maximum of 205,000 euros, according to the level of income or the socio-economic status of the family. On average about 8,500 euros per year, a figure not very far from the Istat and Neodos data of a few years ago, which spoke of 645 euros per month. Of course, costs vary significantly even over the years, chasing the needs of children, evidently very different between 0, 10 and 16 years. It is one thing to buy the bed and the bottle, one account is to have to purchase a mobile phone, clothes, sports activities etc. However, these reflections lead to a first crucial element, which is too often forgotten: The average costs say little, while it is important to highlight the strong differences between family and family: those who have higher incomes can spend more, offering their children better opportunities, while low incomes correspond lower costs (and expenses), while the evolutionary needs of the children are substantially equal. So it is certainly necessary to intervene to support parents in front of the cost of their children, precisely to prevent basic inequalities through economic support: otherwise, entrusting the “free market of the birth” the promotion of new births will only increase the scissor among the richest and poorest: the former will have “maneuvering spaces” in their income for better quality products, for a year abroad, for an extra medical examination; The poorest must instead necessarily “compress” the expenses for themselves and the son, to his birth (and maybe they will not even be able to decide to welcome one son – or an extra child).
Another element confirmed by the Moneyfarm data is the new criticality of costs when children are more than one: the effectiveness of “economies of scale” (certainly present) is in fact esteemed much less relevant than the past. To understand: It is true that when I put the dishes at the table, one more person costs relatively little, and that maybe I use the same stroller also for the second child: however it is much less true than a time that you can pass the clothes, and some costs have really become “individual” (the mobile phone, sports activities, etc.). Moneyfarm estimates an additional cost, for the second child, equal to about 70/80% compared to the first, over the age of 18: very different from the algorithms that guide the Family Coefficient of the ISEE, which adds, for an additional child, a coefficient of about 40%. In short, they cost 80% more, but ISEE estimates this additional cost only to 40%. A substantial reform of the ISEE is therefore confirmed urgent and fundamental, in order not to further penalize those parents who have even “dared” to give the world an extra child. Moreover, if the collapse of the birth rate is now recognized as a criticality of the country system as a whole, why preserve such a stingy indicator for the most numerous families?
We could thus conclude, a little provocatively: but why does this relevant cost have to remain prevalent of the parents, and not to be incurred and shared also by the community? After all, a child is not only a “free private choice”, but it is a common good, it is the possibility, for a people and for a country, to build their own future, and the costs for its growth are not “private expenses”, but investments of public relevance. For this reason, it is now time that economic support policies become consistent and structural, to tend to cover these 8,500 euros per year that each parent must take into accountat least for 18 years – and often for many more years.
