When you hear the shocking stats of how many people are living in poverty here in the UK, you'd be forgiven for imagining that they are likely to be those who are unemployed.
In fact, there is a phenomenon emerging of families who are living in 'in-work' poverty, when your bills are just too high and total more than the amount of your income from your employment.
One of the monthly outgoings that is often very high for a lot of parents and can often make it counter intuitive to working, is child care costs.
This week a report from Citizens Advice Scotland says that the average cost of putting a child aged between two and five in nursery for 25 hours a week is £5307 a year, with this rising to £5514 for youngsters under the age of two.
Nursery bills for those aged over two have also risen by 8.2% in the last year "considerably above inflation".
As a result the Citizens Advice is urging the Scottish Government to help working families by ensuring affordable childcare is available.
Holyrood already passed legislation earlier this year to increase the amount of free childcare from 475 hours a year to 600 hours a year for three- and four-year-olds, and disadvantaged two-year-olds.
And in her first speech as First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon pledged to give 30 hours of free childcare every week to three and four-year-olds if she is re-elected in 2016.
But the report said: "The increase to 600 hours of free early education will be of benefit to some working parents, but would only cover six months of the year at 25 hours per week, estimated to be the typical amount that a parent working part time might require, so will not cover full costs."
It added that evidence from Citizens Advice Bureau clients had shown that "for working parents the costs of childcare can be a route to in-work poverty".
"Despite the increase in the statutory guarantee of hours, a number of issues remain which must be tackled to ensure that Scotland's children get the best start in life and their families can avoid poverty through work," the report said.
The advice charity has now called on the Scottish Government and local councils to "work together to ensure that suitable, affordable childcare is provided for working parents in all areas of Scotland", stressing that this is "particularly important in rural areas, where provision is reported to be particularly inadequate".
Citizens Advice Scotland policy manager Keith Dryburgh said: "Childcare has become a more high-profile issue over the last couple of years, and rightly so. If we get it right, the whole Scottish economy will benefit, as well as the families directly concerned.
"The most frequently cited problems we see are the huge costs. But lack of availability is also a problem in many areas. This is particularly acute in rural and remote areas, but is felt across the whole country.
"We are also calling on employers to make sure they are offering the right employment policies to suit working families. e.g. flexible working conditions and more consideration when fixing rotas and shifts could make a huge difference to parents when arranging childcare.
"Many employers already do this but we urge more to follow their lead and help their staff manage this difficult situation."
Aileen Campbell, Minister for Children and Young People, said: "We agree that childcare costs are considerable outlay for most families and that is why we have already expanded annual funded early learning and childcare for three and four-year-olds to almost 16 hours per week.
"We have extended this to the most disadvantaged two-year-olds and the First Minister has also outlined our ambition to increase early learning and childcare provision by the end of the next parliament from 16 hours a week to 30 hours a week.
"The Children and Young People Act now requires local authorities to consult with groups of parents at least once every two years on patterns of childcare provision which would best meet their needs. This should introduce a greater level of flexibility and choice in to the system as we work with local government to further develop and expand provision."
It's good to see politicians and lobbyists in Scotland taking the issue of child care seriously as it's something that is so relevant to parents and can seriously affect our ability to work productively and economically for our families.
