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An end in
sight? Tackling child poverty in the UK
Background briefing and summary
Child poverty
in the UK
The latest published
figures (for 1998/99) show that 4.5 million children in the UK were
living in poverty.
The UK has one
of the highest rates of child poverty among industrialised countries.
Child poverty increased more than in almost any country between
the early 1980s and the mid 1990s.
18 per cent
of children (around 2.4 million) suffer from multiple deprivation,
even after the sacrifices made by their parents. These children
go without two or more necessities such as ‘a warm waterproof coat’
or a ‘properly fitting pair of shoes’.
1 in 6 families
fall into poverty as the result of the birth of a child.
Babies born
to poorer families are more likely to be born prematurely and to
be of low birth weight. The implications include a greater likelihood
of impaired development and of certain chronic diseases later in
life.
Children in
poorer families are more likely to experience illness with a greater
risk of respiratory infection, gastro-enteritis, dental caries and
tuberculosis.
Children whose
parents do unskilled work are five times more likely to die from
accidents than children whose parents have professional occupations.
Children living
in temporary accommodation or poor quality social housing are at
greater risk of fire.
Children from
poorer backgrounds are less likely to do well at school, leaving
school with fewer or no qualifications and less likely to stay on.
Poverty in childhood
can leave a long-term legacy. Children raised in poverty are, as
adults, more likely to be unemployed, in low paid employment, are
more likely to live in social housing, get in trouble with the police
and are at greater risk of alcohol and drug abuse.
An end in
sight?
Summary
of contents
Foreword
Poverty was
not an issue at the last election, reflecting the growing political,
social and economic exclusion of those in poverty.
The cumulative
effect of Labour Budgets has been progressive.
The Government
should show the same unequivocal leadership in the crusade against
domestic poverty as it is in providing in the global arena in relation
to poverty in developing countries.
‘Looking over
its shoulder at Middle Britain’, the Government has been remarkably
quiet about some of the measure it has introduced. The desire of
politicians to woo ‘Middle Britain’ must not result once again in
the marginalisation of poverty as an election issue.
Ruth Lister,
Professor of Social policy at Loughborough University
Ch.1 Child
poverty under Labour
Although child
poverty will have fallen by the time of the election, the fall could
have started earlier and proceeded faster – given the political,
economic and demographic conditions since 1997.
The legacy the
current Government inherited should not be forgotten. There is no
indication that the Conservatives have acknowledged the damage that
their policies caused for children, nor that in a future term in
office they will behave differently.
In 1997/98 4.4
million children were living in households below 50 per cent of
average income after housing costs. By 1998/99 (the latest published
figures) the number had increased to 4.5 million an increase of
100,000.
It is possible
to model the effect of Government policies on the numbers of children
living in poverty. Changes in the tax and benefit system should
lift 1.2 million children out of poverty by April 2001. An increase
in the number of parents in employment since 1997 may lift an additional
300,000 children out of poverty.
Some poor children
have become worse off. They tend to be in families not on income
support who lose mortgage interest tax relief, or in households
in receipt of income support with children over 11 who lose one-parent
benefits.
Had the £2.44
billion foregone in the cut in the basic rate of income tax (from
April 200) been used to increase children’s income support rates,
child poverty could have been reduced by up to a further 695,000
children.
Note: Jonathan Bradshaw’s article uses analysis based on the POLIMOD
simulations conducted by David Piachaud and Holly Sutherland. POLIMOD
uses a measure of poverty based on household incomes before housing
costs. CPAG (and the Government) have used a measure based on incomes
after housing costs. Against both measures, the number of children
lifted out of poverty are roughly the same.
Jonathan
Bradshaw, Professor of Social policy at the University of York
Ch.2 Children’s
benefits & credits
The proposed
integrated child credit (ICC) (planned for 2003) has considerable
potential to contribute to the objective of ending child poverty.
However, there are many structural and administrative complexities
to overcome.
Integration
and simplification of financial support for children will not alone
achieve the goal of ending income poverty. The central objective
should be to set the ICC at a level which guarantees that all children
are lifted out of income poverty.
A minimum income
standard should be used as a target for the level of the ICC.
The future of
child benefit remains unclear - the integrated child credit should
not be a vehicle to undermine it (e.g., by a failure to maintain
child benefit’s value or by introducing some form of means test).
The channelling
of money to children should not be used as an excuse for harsher
labour market conditions (sanctions) in respect of parents.
Martin Barnes,
Director of CPAG; Geoff Fimister, freelance writer and consultant
Ch.3 Employment
and poverty
The Government
believes that joblessness is the most important cause of poverty,
and helping people into employment is at the centre of its anti-poverty
strategy.
Labour market
trends were well established by the time of the 1997 election.
The Government
has targeted ‘joblessness’ rather than unemployment. Policies have
been designed not to create shops, but to influence who gets them
and how well off people will be in work.
There are two
key themes in the Government’s active labour market policy: individualisation
(tailoring) of support to help people into work and the use of compulsion:
The personal
adviser service (offered by the New Deal programmes, ONE, employment
zones and the Job transition Service marks something genuinely new
in British labour market policy. The planned merger of the Employment
Service and the Benefits Agency to create a new ‘Working Age Agency’
is a major extension of this approach.
The Government
has introduced the toughest benefit penalties ever faced by unemployed
people. The extension of compulsion could distort and undermine
the effectiveness of employment services.
The integrated
approach to employment services is welcomed, but more emphasis needs
to be given to the needs of particularly disadvantaged groups such
as disabled or older workers.
The national
minimum wage has been a success, but the main problem is that it
is too low. The trouble free introduction of the minimum wage suggests
that it could be raised to between £4.50 and £5.00 an
hour.
Richard Excell,
TUC Senior Policy Officer
Ch.4 Education
There are a
raft of new policies and initiatives designed to tackle the problems
of disadvantaged areas, schools and pupils. What was once marginal
has become of central concern.
Many of the
programmes and changes are in their early stages. The jury is still
out as regards progress so far in tackling the interaction between
poverty/deprivation and education.
The legacy of
the tight financial regime which followed the 1997 election has
yet to be fully overcome, as is the continuation of a large part
of the policies of the previous government.
A further willingness
to prioritise the needs of disadvantaged areas, schools and pupils
must be looked for in any second term.
The is a need
to consolidate the rash of initiatiives aiming to tackle educational
disadvantage.
George Smith
and Teresa Smith researchers in the Department of Social Policy
and Social Work, University of Oxford
Ch.5 Health
While many indicators
of the population’s health had been improving, inequalities in health
widened significantly during the previous two decades.
A starkly polarised
society is the context into which British children are currently
being born and raised. Government policies to can so far, at best,
only have helped to slow down that process. The underlying trend
is still one of widening polarisation in health.
There is a critical
relationship between health standards and financial poverty.
There is some
evidence that the difference in child mortality between the ‘worst’
and the ‘best’ health areas has started to narrow. Social conditions
and inequalities can change and can change quickly - evidence of
the rate of change in the past does not support a prudent and pessimistic
outlook.
Specific attention
needs to be given to the health needs of young people who are looked
after by local authorities or who are homeless.
Mary Shaw,
an ESRC Research Fellow, School of Geographical Studies, University
of Bristol; Daniel Dorling, Professor of Quantitative Human Geography,
University of Leeds; David Gordon, Senior Research Fellow, School
for Policy Studies, University of Bristol; George Davey Smith, Professor
of Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Social Medicine, University
of Leeds
Ch.6 Housing
Approximately
20,000 new social rented homes were built in 1999, half the number
in 1995.
The number of
households accepted as homeless has increased slightly, but the
number of homeless households in temporary accommodation has increased
significantly, for the first time passing 71,000 households in September
2000.
The number of
households in bed and breakfast accommodation has reached record
levels. In September 2000, 9,530 households – an increase of
14% in a year.
Social housing
was a winner in the Comprehensive Spending Review of July 2000 –
expenditure will nearly double up to 2003/04.
Shelter estimates
100,000 new social homes are required every year to meet current
and rising housing need. The Government’s programme falls short
of this target.
The setting
up of the Rough Sleepers Unit was a significant move. The target
to reduce the number of people sleeping on the streets by two-thirds
within three years is bold. The success of this strategy will depend
on the number of hostel and move-on beds and the availability of
specialist advice and assistance services, including drug and alcohol
counselling.
Housing benefit
administration remains in crisis in many local authorities.
Licensing of
poor quality accommodation in the private rented sector is a manifesto
commitment from the last election which is still outstanding.
Matthew Waters,
Shelter, Policy Unit
Ch.7 Neighbourhood
renewal
There is a North-South
divide, but at district and neighbourhood (ward) level inequalities
are even more pronounced, with the poorest wards having average
deprivation scores over ten times the most affluent.
Against a Child
Poverty Index (mapping the number of families with children ion
means-tested benefits) the contrasts are starker, with some wards
recording over 75 per cent of families receiving means tested benefits
compared with under 7 per cent in better off areas
Local action
to combat poverty and deprivation is not a new idea. It is important
to learn lessons from past initiatives.
The Social Exclusion
Unit has played a key role in Labour’s commitment to neighbourhood
renewal.
There has been
something of an explosion of other area-based initiatives.
Local targets
are important as part of a national strategy. Many people living
in the poorest neighbourhoods do not have a history of collaboration
with, or trust in, government agencies. It will take time to turn
this around.
Social inclusion
can be promoted by local action but this must be placed within the
wider context of social exclusion and polarisation. Although many
poor people do live in deprived neighbourhoods, many do not. Drawing
boundaries around chosen neighbourhoods is as much a political as
a policy process - ‘postcode politics’.
Local action
should not stigmatise local communities and neighbourhoods. Success
in achieving ‘problem area’ status can be a double edged sword,
with an element of negative labelling.
Pete Alcock,
Professor of Social Policy and Head of the Department of Social
policy, University of Birmingham
Ch.8 Race
There remains
a lack of data about the social and economic circumstances of the
black and ethnic minority population.
Many policies
to tackle poverty and social exclusion are ‘colour-blind’ with insufficient
attention to addressing black and ethnic minority issue.
The Government
has demonstrated a populist and prejudiced stance towards immigration.
Asylum seekers
are faced with a system which is clearly failing.
The next administration
should address the issue of institutional racism in the context
of social exclusion
Gary Graig,
Professor of Social Justice, University of Hull
Appendix1.
New Labour Diary:
Tim Marsh, Policy
Officer, UK Public Health Association
Further information
on this website:
An End in
Sight? Tackling child poverty in the UK
An authoritative analysis of the Blair government’s record in tackling
child and family poverty from 1997-2001. Distinguished contributors
from various fields assess Labour’s progress towards achieving abolition
of child poverty within 20 years.
119 pages 1 901698 34 3 February 2001 £9.95 full
details order
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