A look at Britain's inequalities

Written by Pete Goodwin Tuesday, 16 February 2010

The news deals a serious blow to government (and opposition) plans to make us work until at least 68 as illness currently affects more than three-quarters of people that age according to the study.

The report, commissioned by the Labour government and compiled by University College London epidemiologist Sir Michael Marmot, called for an increase in the minimum wage so that poor families could better feed their children.

It also called for an increase in NHS spending on disease prevention, which currently accounts for 4% of the total health budget.

Marmot said that more than 200,000 deaths could be avoided each year if the population in general enjoyed the same levels of health as university graduates.

He placed the cost of health inequality at £33 billion each year in lost productivity.

Reacting to the news, Health Secretary Andy Burnham told the BBC, "It's not right that where we live can dictate the state of our health.

"The report shows us there is still much to do - so we are looking to all corners of the community to work together."

The report follows on from another government-commissioned report, An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK, which published last month and which showed the richest 10% of Britain's population are now more than 100 times wealthier than the poorest 10%.

The report, led by Professor John Hills of the London School of Economics, found that the chances for improvement for a child born into a poor family have not improved over the past 30 years.

"The evidence we have looked at shows the long arm of people's origins in shaping their life chances, stretching through life stages, literally from cradle to grave," the report said.

"Differences in wealth in particular are associated with opportunities such as the ability to buy houses in the catchment areas of the best schools or to afford private education, with advantages for children that continue through and beyond education."

Women are more qualified, but earn on average 21% less than men, the Hills report also found.

There were significant variations in income depending on where people lived.

Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black men earn a fifth less than white men of similar qualifications, and half of South Asian Muslims live in poverty.

Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black boys gain below average GCSE results, but white boys in this group are less likely to go on higher education.

Both reports found that inequalities can be locked in as early as three years of age.

Citing a study that looked at young mothers' attitudes to cuddling and talking to infants, Marmot told the BBC women from a lower social class found this less important.

"But then by the age of three, these children had more behavioural problems and worse cognitive skills.

"Then they have less readiness to learn, and the problems continue.

"Children who are nurtured flourish."

At the end of January, Save the Children reported that 1.7 million children - that's 13% of Britain's children - live in severe poverty.

A quarter of a million children were pushed into severe poverty even before the current recession in the so-called "boom" years of 2004-8, the report said.

Some of Britain's most striking inequalities are in education, where you are far less likely to get good GCSE and A-level grades if you come from a poor background.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families has withdrawn the original report of 2009's results because of problems with special needs data, but a table of the results originally released in December in the Guardian newspaper showed only 49% of pupils who get free school meals achieved five good GCSE grades in 2009, compared to almost 70% of all pupils.

The department is expected to reissue the data in March.

A December 2009 report by the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring of Durham University for the Sutton Trust, which campaigns for greater social mobility, found that the children of graduates spend twice as much time doing homework than their peers, and a third of 15-year-olds with non-graduate parents were set no homework or very little.

A 2008 study by Bahram Bekhradnia and Nick Bailey of the Oxford Higher Education Policy Institute found that more than half of pupils who attained seven good GSCEs, 39% of those with eight, a fifth of those with nine and 14% of those with 10 good grades did not continue their education.

Almost 30% of private school pupils achieve three A grades at A level, but only 7% of comprehensive pupils do. Half of A levels at private school score grade A, while only a fifth at comprehensives do.

And even if those in the lowest social classes manage to get to university and graduate, there are still obstacles to the professions.

While only 7% of British children attend independent schools, well over half of the people working in the countries professions went to one, an all-party panel led by former minister Alan Milburn found last summer.

A staggering 75% of judges, 70% of finance directors and 45% of top civil servants went to private schools.

Almost a third of the members of parliament were privately educated.

There was just one area where a recent report found an improvement in chances for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

A report released two weeks ago from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) found "a substantial and sustained increase in the HE participation rate of young people living in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods since the mid-2000s".

Young people are now 30% more likely to go on to higher education from disadvantaged areas than in the mid-2000s.

Rates have risen for advantaged neighbourhooods, but less rapidly, the report said.

Currently 36% of young people continue their studies aged 18 or 19. The rate has increased 20% since the 1990s, the HEFCE said.