http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-11170711

Children as young as 10 face being fined £80 for dropping litter in Oxford after the proposal was approved. The city council will extend its fixed penalty notices to young people aged 10 to 17 as part of its “zero-tolerance approach” to littering. The council had only previously been able to give warnings to under-18s. Enforcement officers will work with police and the Youth Offending Service to deal with offenders. Anyone caught will be first issued with a warning and their details passed to Thames Valley Police.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11110060

Nearly two-thirds of UK parents cannot afford after-school activities for their children, a poll suggests. This rises to nearly three-quarters of those parents below the poverty line, the online poll of 854 parents for Save the Children indicated. It suggested that even basic activities, such as catch-up clubs for those falling behind, can be costly. Nearly half of the parents polled said they were having to pay more than £10 per child a week. However, most of the parents thought their children would miss out if they did not take part in such activities.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11086630

The prime minister has put work on hold to be with his new daughter, but many new fathers can’t afford the statutory time off. Is modern Britain coping with fatherhood? It is those precious early moments with a new child that so many fathers treasure. A time to bond with their offspring and offer invaluable assistance to the mother. After welcoming new daughter Florence into the world, Prime Minister Dave Cameron is taking his statutory paternity leave to be with his wife Samantha. But it is an experience that not all of his fellow fathers feel they can justify sharing. Thanks to decades of shifting attitudes, their reluctance is not based chiefly on chauvinism or a belief that childcare is woman’s work. The problem, instead, is money.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/15/women-children-career-top-jobs

More than half of Britain’s top headhunters believe women should not take time out to look after children if they want to get to the top in their careers. A new survey found that 53% of those who are recruiting for positions with a salary of £150,000 and above think that women must forsake a career break if they want to reach the top executive jobs in British businesses.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/aug/14/pensions-children-sipps

Now that child trust funds have been axed, how about paying into a pension plan for your offspring? It’s the prudent present they can’t get their hands on until they’re at least 55. This isn’t a gift likely to get youngsters’ pulses racing, but an investment firm has produced figures that, it says, show you can potentially turn your child into “a millionaire” by the time he or she reaches 65 by contributing £88 a month into their own “self-invested personal pension (Sipp).”

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargains-and-rip-offs/travel/article.html?in_article_id=511065&in_page_id=1093&position=moretopstories

The cost of taking your baby can add up to more than the price of an adult ticket, according to new research. Although infants under two do not require their own seat, by law airlines can still charge you for taking for a child who will be sitting on your lap. These charges range from a standard charge of £15 – £20 per child each way, while some airlines charge 10% – 12% of the adult fare, according to Travelsupermarket.com.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/aug/02/northern-rock-childrens-savings-account

Northern Rock has launched a market-leading children’s savings account on the same day that new parents will see their child trust fund (CTF) vouchers cut by £200. The bank’s Little Rock account pays 5% interest fixed until 1 September 2013. It is available to customers aged under the age of 16 – with an appropriate adult named on the account as trustee – and money will not be able to be withdrawn from the account during the three-year fixed-rate term.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10823283

Many more people will have to pay back some of the money paid to them as tax credits in the future, experts say. At the moment credits are based on a family’s own estimate of income for the coming year, with households allowed to earn an extra £25,000 before they have to pay money back to the government. But over the next 18 months that buffer will be reduced to £5,000, meaning that many families could face repayments. One expert warned the number of overpayments would “rocket”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10816485

Babies born this weekend will be the last in the UK to receive the full payment to Child Trust Funds. Vouchers for £250 from the government – to be invested until the child is 18 – will be paid until Monday, when payments will fall to £50, or £100 for low-income families. The scheme will be abolished at the end of the year, prompting critics to accuse the government of short-termism. The government says the vouchers are essentially funded by public borrowing. As part of the phasing out of the scheme, the top-up £250 given on a child’s seventh birthday has now also been scrapped in England.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10831350

People who missed Saturday’s deadline to renew their tax credits because a helpline was busy have been told to try phoning again on Sunday or Monday. HM Revenue & Customs said its tax credit helpline was “extremely busy” yesterday, and it would now look “sympathetically” on late callers. It said this would be done on a “case by case basis”, where claimants can show they tried to ring on Saturday. Four million families risk losing their tax credits if they are not updated. To do this, they had to inform HMRC about any changes to their income or childcare costs before the 8pm deadline on Saturday, 31 July.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-10750581

Cornwalls Eden Project has abandoned offering family tickets as part of a round of entry charge increases. It means a family of two adults and three children which would have previously been charged £39 on the door has to pay £53 to enter the attraction. The project said that it was using newspaper promotions and supermarket reward schemes instead to lower the price for families. The new total of £53 comes from adults being charged £17.50 and children £6.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/7906896/Three-wheel-buggies-fall-out-of-favour.html

They were the ultimate celebrity accessory. But now, it appears, the three-wheel children’s buggy has fallen from favour. Industry figures from NPD, the research company, suggested that sales of three-wheelers have fallen by 12 per cent over the last year, while more traditional four-wheel push chairs have increased strongly, up 23 per cent. Three-wheel buggies became wildly fashionable over five years ago, when a series of celebrities were spotted pushing their children around in the long vehicles, including Madonna, Brooke Shields and even Russell Crowe. They were particularly popular with those mothers that wanted to run while taking their children out

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/childcare-costs-force-parents-to-give-up-their-work-for-years-1.1042119

Scottish parents are being forced to stay at home because the cost of childcare is so great it is not worth both of them working full time. With five-day childcare for two children costing almost £16,000 a year, many would be working purely to cover the cost of childcare. As a result, a new survey has revealed almost half of parents with two or more offspring have decided that at least one should cut their hours or give up work entirely. The typical cost of a full-time nursery place for a child under two is £152 a week – more than £7900 a year.