sociology supplementary 2 - child poverty in the uk
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www.curriculum-press.co.uk Number 151
SociologyFactsheet
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Child Poverty in the UKThis Factsheet will look at Poverty in the UK with particular reference to Child Poverty.
It will be useful for many areas of the different A level specifications. It can be used specifically for answering questions on poverty but it can also be used in topic areas such as stratification and differentiation. Poverty has an impact in many areas of society and it is therefore possible to use some of this information in topic areas such as Family and Households, Education, Health and Crime and Deviance.
IntroductionChild poverty has been a major focus of political debate, and often policy action, in the UK. Whether or not poverty is a serious social problem has been a matter of much political debate in recent years.
DefinitionsWhat is Poverty?Poverty means being poor but there are various definitions for poverty.
Absolute Poverty is where a person lacks the minimum necessary for healthy survival. It refers to a personâs biological needs for food, water, clothing and shelter â the basic requirements necessary to maintain life, health and physical efficiency.
An absolute standard is defined by reference to the actual needs of the poor and not by reference to the expenditure of those who are not poor.
It has been argued that absolute definitions of poverty have the merit of providing a fixed and universal definition which can be used for measuring and comparing poverty in all societies.
These definitions can also reveal changes in living standards in a society over time. For example, Joseph Rowntree calculated that 33% of Yorkâs population were in poverty in 1899 but only 1.5% in 1950, a change attributed to higher living standards and the provision of the welfare state.
Relative poverty defines poverty in relation to generally accepted standards of living in a specific society at a specific time.
Townsend (1979) defines relative poverty as follows:Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the types of diets, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and amenities which are customary, or at least widely encouraged or approved, in the societies to which they belong. Their resources are so seriously below those commanded by the average individual or family that they are, in effect, excluded from ordinary living patterns, customs or activities.
Activity: Do some research on the criticisms of these definitions
Measuring PovertyAs no consensus has emerged on the definition of poverty, there is also little agreement on how to measure it. The use of an absolute or relative definition will determine:
⢠The tools used to measure poverty⢠At what level the poverty line is drawn⢠How much poverty exists
Researchers and politicians have tended to favour relative definitions. They believe that social justice requires that the poor are not simply maintained at some absolute level of subsistence but given the opportunity to enjoy the living standards of the majority.
Various measurements have been used to try to measure poverty:1. Rowntree was concerned with the extent of poverty in Britain in
the 19th century. He attempted to find out the minimum amount offood, fuel, clothing and shelter necessary for a healthy life. Thesegoods could then be costed and those with an income below thatneeded to cover the cost of them could be defined as in poverty.
2. Townsend (1968-69) surveyed 2052 households using a âdeprivationindexâ designed to measure poverty in a relative way. This indexincluded 12 items Townsend believed could be seen as normalaspects of life for most British people. Each household was givena score depending on the number of the 12 items absent and thiswas then related to income, the number of people in the household and the number of dependents.
3. Mack and Lansley (1983) surveyed 1174 people, asking them whatthey regarded as necessities or desirable for a normal life. Theydiscovered that people shared similar ideas of what were necessities and if 50% of the respondents agreed then that item was includedin the poverty index. They identified 22 necessities and those whowere classed as being in poverty were those who had a lack of threeof those things defined as a necessity.
4. Official measures of poverty include criteria set down by the state.One way the British government has defined poverty has been anincome less than 60% of the median income. The dividing linebetween those who are poor and those who are not is known as the poverty line.
ActivityLook at these different ways of measuring poverty and decide what measure is being used in each case: absolute or relative measures of poverty. Give reasons for your answers.
Exam Hint:- Showing an understanding of the different ways poverty is measured is important in the exam. Explaining the different ways poverty can be measured can give you marks for knowledge and understanding. Evaluating and comparing the different methods can give you evaluation marks.
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Relative poverty among children was quite stable during the 1960s and 1970s, at a level lower than it has been ever since. It then rose rapidly during the 1980s, from 13% in 1979 to a peak of 29% by 1992. After stabilising or falling slightly in the early 1990s, relative child poverty has since fallen substantially.
Child Poverty Facts and FiguresThe Social Mobility and Child Poverty (SMCP) Commission monitors the progress of the government and others in improving social mobility and reducing child poverty in the United Kingdom.⢠There are 3.5 million children living in poverty in the UK today.
Thatâs 27 per cent of children, or more than one in four.⢠There are even more serious concentrations of child poverty at a
local level: in some parts of the UK between 50 and 70 per cent ofchildren are growing up in poverty.
⢠Work does not provide a guaranteed route out of poverty in the UK. The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission reported that in 2014 two out of every three poor children lived in a working household. Three quarters of those children lived with at least one adult who work full time, whilst the remaining quarter came from households where both parents worked.
⢠Child poverty blights childhoods. Growing up in poverty means being cold, going hungry, not being able to join in activities with friends. For example, 61 per cent of families in the bottom income quintile would like, but cannot afford, to take their children on holiday for one week a year.
⢠Child poverty imposes costs on broader society â estimated to be at least ÂŁ29 billion a year.
⢠Child poverty reduced dramatically between 1998/9-2011/12 when 1.1 million children were lifted out of poverty (Before Housing Costs). This reduction is credited in large part to measures that increased the levels of lone parents working, as well as real and often significant increases in the level of benefits paid to families with children.
⢠The UK has one of the worst rates of poverty in the industrialised world
⢠40 per cent of poor children live in a household headed by a lone parent. The majority of poor children (57%) live in a household headed by a couple.
⢠38% of children in poverty are from families with 3 or more children. ⢠2 million british children now have no parent in work and the
number of children in families having to survive on benefits has jumped by 170,000 in twelve months.
⢠Average household income in 2013-14 - before housing costs -remained unchanged from 2012-13, at £453 a week - making the poverty line £272 a week.
Fig. 1 Household income below 60% of UK average
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Exam Hint:- Using evidence in your answers will give you additional marks in the exam. Donât just make statements e.g. Child poverty is declining without giving evidence for it.
Activity Whilst the Welfare State may have removed the worst excesses of absolute poverty, it has failed to solve the real problems of relative poverty.Make a list of as many reasons as you can think of as to why child poverty continues to exist.
Why does Child poverty still exist in Britain today?Cultural Explanations1. The Culture of PovertyLewis (1961) suggested that the poor have a culture of poverty with itsown norms and values and way of life. This makes the poor differentfrom the rest of society. He suggested that the poor have the followingcultural features:⢠They are resigned to their situation and seldom take
opportunities when they arise⢠They have a sense of fatalism â nothing can be done to change
their situation⢠They are reluctant to work⢠They donât plan for the future⢠They make little effort to change their situation or take the initiative
to try to break free from poverty Children grow up in this culture, which is passed from one generation to the next through socialisation.
2. The Dependency CultureThis refers to a system of social welfare that encourages people to stayon benefits rather than work.
For example, if a person is out of work with several children, they may be entitled to:⢠Unemployment benefit⢠Housing Benefit⢠Means tested child tax credits⢠Free prescriptions etc
If they chose to work, they may lose these benefits and also pay more income tax and national insurance. Their net take home pay may be little different to that income received whilst not working.
The New Right sees many of the poor as work shy and lazy and Marsland argues that poverty arises from the generosity of the Welfare State. The generosity of âhandoutsâ from the Welfare State encourage people to live on the âhandoutsâ rather than taking responsibility themselves for improving their situation. The more the Welfare State provides benefits for people, the less they will do for themselves.
In this way children âlearnâ the norms of their family and do not see the importance of working.
ActivityHow might you carry out research to test whether the ideas of poor people are different from those of the non-poor? Work out a plan for carrying out research in this area. Think about the research method you would use, your sampling frame, sampling techniques and ethical issues etc.
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151. Child Poverty in the UK
Material explanations1. Material constraintsThe lack of a job and insufficient income to support a family means that often resources are used up on a week by week basis. Any distinctive cultural features of the poor are more likely to be a response to poverty, rather than a cause of it.
2. The cycle of deprivationThe poor often become trapped in poverty. For example, a child born in poverty may have poor quality housing and diet. This may cause ill health, and therefore absence from school. This means falling behind in exams which in turn will mean a low paid job or unemployment, and therefore poverty in adult life. It then carries on with the children. The cost of living is higher for the poor than the non-poor, and this hinders the poor in their attempts to escape poverty. Children therefore often find themselves in poverty.
The poor pay more because:⢠They often live in poor quality housing, which is expensive to heat
and maintain⢠They live mainly in inner city areas where rents are high⢠They have to pay more for food as they can only afford to buy it
in small quantities which is more expensive. They might not havetransport to get to the local supermarket so may need to buy foodin their local shop.
Activity Draw a flow diagram to illustrate the cycle of deprivation
Structural explanationsStructural explanations explain poverty as arising from the inequality of capitalist society, with its unequal distribution of wealth, income and power. Poverty is seen as an aspect of social inequality and not merely an individual problem of poor people. The poor are prevented from achieving a reasonable standard of living by the actions of the more powerful in society. Those who have least power â elderly people, ethnic minorities and, of course, children, have significantly higher chances of living in poverty.
The Marxist approach, such as that adopted by Miliband and Westergaard suggest that:⢠Wealth is concentrated in the hands of the ruling class, and this
generates class inequalities. Poverty is the inevitable result ofcapitalism, and low paid workers provide the source of profitswhich enables the rich to achieve high incomes.
⢠The privileged position of the wealthy ultimately rests on workingclass poverty. The threat of poverty and unemployment motivatesworkers, and provides a pool of cheap labour for the capitalist class.
⢠The existence of the non-working poor helps to keep wages down,by providing a pool of reserve labour which threatens the jobs ofthe non- poor should their wage demands become excessively high.
⢠Poverty divides the working class by separating off the poor fromthe non-poor working class, and preventing the development ofworking class unity and a class consciousness that might threatenthe stability of the capitalist system.
The Weberian approach such as that adopted by Townsend, suggest inequality arises from the different market position of individuals â the different skills that people have and the different rewards attached to them when they sell their labour in the job market. The poor are marginalised because they lack the education and skills which might bring them higher rewards, and the demand for unskilled and unqualified labour is declining.
Poverty remains because the poor lack the power to change their position. They donât have the financial resources to form powerful groups to change public opinion, and they often lack the means to apply pressure on the rich.
Functionalist approaches, such as Gans (1973) and Davis and Moore(1945/1967) argue that the existence of poverty has important functions in contributing to the maintenance and stability of society.
Poverty creates jobs in a range of occupations, such as social work, social security staff and the police etc.
The threat of poverty provides necessary incentives and motivation for people to work.
The existence of the poor provides a living example to the non-poor of what not to be and reinforces the mainstream values of honesty, hard work and planning for the future.
What are the effects of child poverty?Poverty damages. It damages childhoods; it damages life chances; and it damages us all in society.
In 2013 a report estimated that child poverty costs the UK at least ÂŁ29 billion each year. Of this ÂŁ20.5 billion is a direct cost to government resulting from additional demand on services and benefits, as well as reduced tax receipts.
1. Life expectancyA boy in Manchester can expect to live 7 years less thana boy in Barnet.
A girl in Manchester can expect to live 6 years less than a girl in Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster
2. Health⢠Poverty is associated with a higher risk of both illness and premature
death.⢠Children born in the poorest areas of the UK weigh, on average,
200 grams less at birth than those born in the richest areas.⢠Children from low income families are more likely to die at birth
or in infancy than children born into richer families.⢠They are more likely to suffer chronic illness during childhood or
to have a disability.⢠Poverty is also related to more complicated health histories over
the course of a lifetime, again influencing earnings as well as theoverall quality â and indeed length - of life. Professionals live, onaverage, eight years longer than unskilled workers
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3. Education⢠Children from poorer backgrounds lag at all stages of education.⢠By the age of three, poorer children are estimated to be, on average,
nine months behind children from more wealthy backgrounds.⢠According to Department for Education statistics, by the end of
primary school, pupils receiving free school meals are estimated to be almost three terms behind their more affluent peers.
⢠By 14, this gap grows to over five terms.⢠By 16, children receiving free school meals achieve 1.7 grades
lower at GCSE than their wealthier peers. Leaving school with fewer qualifications translates into lower earnings over the course of a working life.
⢠Less than half of pupils entitled to free school meals (just 36%) achieve 5 GCSEs at C or above, including Maths and English. This compares to 63% of pupils who are not eligible.
⢠Parents who are in poverty are less able to help their children with their education and have less money than better-off parents to enable the school to buy extra resources.
⢠Children from low income families often forgoevents that most of us would take for granted.They miss school trips; canât invite friends overfor tea; and canât afford a one-week holiday awayfrom home.
4. Housing⢠1.6 million children are growing up in homes
which are too cold⢠Children living in poverty are almost twice as
likely to live in bad housing. This has significanteffects on both their physical and mental health,as well as educational achievement.
⢠Fuel poverty also affects children detrimentally as they grow up. A recent report showed that low income families do sometimes haveto make a choice between food and heating.
⢠41% of children in the poorest fifth of households are in familieswho canât afford to replace broken electrical goods, compared withjust 3% of children in the richest households
⢠2% of couples and 8% of lone parents cannot afford two pairs ofshoes for each child.
5. CommunitiesWhile studies show that there are more play areasin deprived areas, their quality is generally poorer.Vandalism, playground misuse and danger of injuryall act as deterrents to using what otherwise mightbe good facilities.
The LawIn 1999 Tony Blair (Labour Government) promised to abolish child poverty in Britain by 2020 and to cut by 1.2 million the number of children in poverty by the end of the 1997 â 2001 parliament. The Child Poverty Act received Royal Assent on 25th March 2010 and it was this piece of legislation that helped to make child poverty a priority with a commitment to eradicate child poverty by 2020.
Data for 1999/2000 suggest that the number of children living in poverty (defined as below 60% median household income) actually fell by 300,000.
The Labour Governments promoted child poverty to the top of the policy agenda and chose to use tax and benefits as a means of achieving their poverty objectives.
A number of policies were introduced:⢠To increase employment rates among lone parents (which did
happen) alongside active labour market and welfare-to-work programmes designed to achieve this.
⢠The introduction of the National Minimum Wage⢠To increase spending on means tested benefits for low income
families with children including increases in Income Support (an out of work benefit), and Working Familiesâ tax credit. By the time labour left office in 2010, ÂŁ30.7 billion per year was spent on tax credits. Most of this went on low income households with children. As a result of rapid increases in benefits and tax credits for families with children, child poverty fell rapidly between 1998 and 2004.
In the following three years to 2007 - 08, benefit increase slowed and child poverty stopped falling. Although child poverty continued to decline from 3.4 million in 1998-99 to 2.3 million in 2010-11, the targets set had not been reached.
Since 2010, the coalition government has introduced the pupil premium, supported families through the ground-breaking Troubled Families programme and reduced the number of children in poverty in workless households to a record low.
New legislationChanges in benefits and tax credits between April 2013 and April 2015 hit low-income households with children the hardest and although it appears that child poverty has continued to fall, this is due to falling median income (driven by falls in the real pay of workers), not rising incomes of poor families and children.
Despite reductions in child poverty in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to considerable state cash benefits for families with children, this has not continued.
In July 2015, the new Conservative Government introduced a new and strengthened approach to tackling the life chances of Britainâs most disadvantaged children by stating that they wanted a much more effective measure focused on the real causes of poverty.
The Secretary of State, Iain Duncan Smith said:
âThe current child poverty measure â defined as 60% of median income â is considered to be deeply flawed and a poor test of whether childrenâslives are genuinely improving.â
This was shown when the number of children in poverty went down significantly as the economy shrank during the recent recession, when in reality there was little change to those childrenâs lives.
The government will bring forward legislation to correct that with new measures focused on levels of work within a family and improvements in education attainment.
They plan to work towards eradicating child poverty by tackling not only the symptoms but also tackling the underlying causes of poverty, including family breakdown, debt and addiction, setting these out in a childrenâs life chances strategy.
They also plan to introduce new legislation to replace the Child Poverty Act 2010.
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Acknowledgements: This Sociology Factsheet was researched and written by Rosie Owens. Curriculum Press. Bank House, 105 King Street, Wellington, TF1 1NU. Sociology Factsheets may be copied free of charge by teaching staff or students, provided that their school is a registered subscriber. No part of these Factsheets may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any other form or by any other means, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISSN 1351-5136
So what needs to be done to end child poverty?
The Child Action Poverty Group believes that:⢠there needs to be greater political will to tackle the problem⢠this will must be translated into action⢠child poverty requires cultural change.The 2015-2020 government confronts a child poverty crisis. Families with children have been hardest hit by austerity. When it assesses its priorities the new government will face a stark choice: ignore rising poverty and shut out a generation of children from the chances they deserve or face up to the challenge of child poverty and the action needed to end it.
This comes as the government has said it wants to change the way child poverty is measured - as it believes the current measurement is inadequate.David Cameronâs official spokeswoman said the prime minister âremains committed to doing more work to eliminate child poverty and that is precisely why the government wants to look at having an approach that is focused more on tackling the root causes of poverty than treating the symptoms.â
ActivityLook at the new Conservative Governmentâs policies on reducing child poverty
Exam Hint:- Identify three ways in which poverty may be passed on to the next generation. (6 marks)Appropriate ways identified could include: ⢠socialised into a fatalistic culture of poverty⢠lack of educational opportunities leading to disadvantage in the labour market⢠poor quality housing leading to poor health⢠poorer diet/health may mean poor do less well in school⢠lower value placed on education⢠example of parents encourage reliance on benefits⢠lack of resources at home may mean poor do less well in education system.
Exam Hint:- Assess the view that poverty is inevitable in society.Answers will show sound, conceptually detailed knowledge and understanding of sociological material on the view that poverty is inevitable in society. Concepts and issues such as the following may be included: culture of poverty; dependency culture; poverty trap; social exclusion; exploitation; capitalism; the underclass; globalisation; low pay; the welfare state; differences in talent and ability; incentives; structural factors; cycle of deprivation; fatalism; socialisation; marginalisation; situational constraints. Analysis and evaluation may be developed, for instance by discussing different perspectives such as Marxist, functionalist and New Right.