Tackling Child Poverty
Social Mobility
An understanding of the issues and drivers around social mobility are key to identifying what your organisation can do to tackle child poverty.
Social mobility in can refer to horizontal social mobility which includes geographic migrations and movement from one position to another within the same social level.
In this case however we are referring to vertical social mobility which is defined as the degree to which an individual's or group's status is able to change in terms of position in social hierarchy or socio economic status.
Recent data mainly from the UK birth cohort surveys shows a general trend for reducing inter-generational mobility in recent years. This would suggest further entrenchment and reproduction of poverty and child poverty in Britain.
A recent study called Changing Fortunes: income mobility and poverty dynamics in Britain by Stephen Jenkins, Professor of Economic and Social Policy at the London School of Economics has demonstrated by use of British Household Panel Survey data that there is in fact considerable intra-generational turnover across the socio-economic deciles.
For example professor Jenkins’ research shows that over a 4 year period 55% of the poorest decile stay in the poorest decile. That means however, that 45% of the poorest decile move up the next decile and 20% of those to the next. With a few exceptions movement all but peters out for the poorest after that point.
This trend is repeated at around the 60% of median income socio economic deciles, although the numbers differ a little. This intra-generational analysis of the experience of poverty challenges conventional wisdom that there is a reproducing underclass of poor people because some are lifted out of poverty beyond the 60% of median threshold and stay out.
Conversely however, Professor Jenkins’ research also shows that 30% individuals at or around 60% of median income cross the threshold the other way, into poverty in any 4 year period. This suggests that the experience of poverty is in fact much more widely felt by individuals across UK society than previously thought.
The study identifies many drivers of individual and household social mobility and categorises them as largely due to income events or to Demographic events.
- Income events refer to fluctuations in the labour market and associated earnings by the head of household and / or spouse, tax and benefits changes, other income credits including savings interest etc
- Demographic events include marriage, divorce, births and deaths in the household.
