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By Sophie Smith personal finance reporter

Happy Easter everyone, we hope you had an enjoyable break.

Any royalists out there will know that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are due to have their baby any day now – in fact, with the couple controversially deciding not to announce when the baby arrives, rumours are circulating that Meghan Markle has already given birth.

It's no surprise that having a baby is a costly affair, but exclusive analysis for Telegraph Money has found that stay-at-home dads in the UK can leave their families thousands of pounds worse off because of flaws in policies meant to free working mothers from the nursery.

Families with an annual joint income of 80,000, for example, with each partner earning 40,000, lose out by more than 10,000 in the child’s first year with a stay-at-home dad. Shared parental leave is not a financially viable option for many families.

Yet women who stay at home to look after their children on partial pay lose out on pension contributions if they become self-employed to juggle work and childcare. Telegraph Money has previously reported that this “pension pregnancy penalty” can be as high as 250,000.

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You have the last word...

Brian Thorne said about I learnt more about money from Monopoly than maths class: "I learnt more about money after I left school, started working and set up my own bank account."

James Williams said about The Government won’t listen, but you can’t help Generation Rent by hurting landlords: "The tax breaks enjoyed by buy-to-let landlords are totally unjustified. Why should private individuals be allowed to deduct interest payments from personal tax returns if they have a buy-to-let but not as an owner occupier. I use my car to drive to work, but I can’t set the interest payments on it against tax. Here is a simple idea for the amateur army of buy-to-let investors: you want to be taxed like a company? Then set up a company."

Steve Aucock said about Name checks on bank transfers – due by April – won't be possible until 2020: "Hey, here's an idea to speed things up. Make the banks that don't implement it fully and instantly responsible for all such losses by account holders until they have the system fully operating. There's nothing like a bit of incentive..."

Contact us: to pose a question to our team of expert reporters, email moneyexpert@telegraph.co.uk. If you'd like a free financial plan, email money@telegraph.co.uk with the subject 'Give me a Money Makeover'.

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