New research from Scottish Widows has shown that 4m of the 6.6 million UK households with dependent children are reliant on two or more salaries.
Families with children also have higher of debt with the average household with dependent children still with nearly £92,000 outstanding on their mortgage, an increase of over £3000 from last year.
Families with no dependent children have just over £73,000 mortgage debt and have managed to reduce it by over £4,000 since last year.
The average household with dependent children has carried over nearly £9000 in short term debt over the last three months, compared to an average of £7000 for those with no dependent children.
Scottish Widows' protection director, Clive Allison said: "The days of one parent going out to work while the other takes care of the family is just not an option for many people. Nearly half of families with dependent children now rely on two incomes to maintain a decent standard of living, and as our stats show, this isn't likely to ease off any time soon. For many families, sacrificing half their income when they have children is a luxury they just can't afford."
“This reliance on two incomes to run the family home means millions of households are leaving themselves at risk of being unable to survive financially if one of the bread winners become unable to work as a result of critical illness, death, disability or due to an accident. Furthermore, the research shows 62 per cent of Brits have not protected themselves for the long term should the worst happen and they lose their household's main income.”