Inequality damages children’s health, warns union

Inequality is just as damaging to a child’s health, education and general well-being as poverty, union chiefs warned today.

A report by the TUC highlighted concerns that a growing wealth divide in the UK was undermining work done to bring down the number of children living in poverty.

It stated that social inequality harmed the life chances of children as well as being linked to a range of health, development and educational problems.

Authors of the Poverty and Inequality and Children report said that although the UK had had some progress in reducing child poverty, progress on social inequality had dragged behind.

The briefing notes reveal that over the last 30 years, the class divide has grown rapidly in the UK with the gap between the top and bottom tenth of the population doubling since 1979.

This inequality affects a child’s progress from birth, it is claimed. Babies from a lower socio-economic background are more likely to have low birth weight, which could lead to infant mortality and development problems.

Health also suffers, with children from low income families more likely to suffer from a range of complaints such as asthma, immune system problems, depression and stress, according to the briefing.

The report also found a class divide in education, with children of parents from higher socio-economic groups far more likely than others to achieve five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, said: "We need to take action to reduce inequality now.

"The causes of inequality are widespread, but the remedies for inequality are far clearer – raising skill levels of those without qualification, and tackling the gender pay gap would be a good start."

The TUC is backing calls by the End Child Poverty campaign for an extra £3 billion in benefits and tax credits.

Union bosses also urge measures to raise the skill levels of people with low or no qualifications and strengthen the position of vulnerable workers.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "We have lifted 600,000 children out of poverty and there is a near record number of people in work today. Further measures announced in recent budgets will lift around half a million more children out of poverty.

"Had the Government done nothing other than the usual increases in the tax and benefit systems, we estimate there would have been 1.7 million more children in poverty today. And independent research has shown that levels of inequality would have been far greater.

"Our radical new plans to reform the welfare system will also put us well on the way to getting one million people off incapacity benefits by 2015. This forms the cornerstone of goals to achieve one of the highest employment rates in the world and improve skills and equality for long-term benefit claimants."

(Source: Mental Health Association UK: September 2008)