Mothers do £24,456 worth of work

It would cost £24,456 a year to pay people to do the work the UK's mothers do each year for free, new research shows.

Legal & General’s Value of a Mum report shows that the monetary worth of the chores, errands, and expertise of Britain's mothers has more than doubled in the last 25 years.

And this could be a problem - as life insurance policies often do not reflect the added cost of getting all the little jobs done if the worst should happen to mum.

Both men and women heavily underestimate how much it would cost to cover a mother’s weekly work - with men guessing at £267 and women at £278. The actual value is £407 a week.

"Over the last 25 years, family structures have changed," said professor Richard Verrall from the Cass Business School.

"The pressures on women and their career expectations have altered and one trend, for example, that has emerged is for them to delay having children.

"A consequence of this is that parents' mortality rates are likely to be higher at the crucial time when they are bringing up their children - something which many people may overlook when deciding about life insurance."

Legal & General’s Cheryl Clements added: "The financial value of a mother’s work in the home is often undervalued, especially when it comes to ensuring a family could cope financially if a parent died.

"It is extremely worrying that only 17 per cent of women have taken out insurance on their own life, when it is clear from the research that families would struggle to cover the mother’s work in the event of her death or critical illness.

"We hope that the Value of a Mum research will highlight the need for family protection, especially as the cost of life assurance has reduced over recent years. People may not realise that these days, £6 a month could buy you around £100,000 of life cover." XXX