Report Card 9 highlights material inequality in UK children

Date: 6th December 2010
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities, Civil Rights and Freedoms, Disability, Basic Health and Welfare

A new UNICEF report on child inequality in 24 developed countries has shown that income poverty has the greatest impact on child inequality in the UK.

UK levels of income poverty push the most disadvantaged children further behind compared to similar countries, such as France and Germany.

UNICEF UK's Executive Director David Bull said, 'Tackling income poverty should remain the number one priority for Government to reduce child inequality in the UK. At a time of austerity we must not widen this gap. Children living in poverty must not pay the price for reducing the deficit and should be the first to be protected. Household income must be central to next year's child poverty strategy.'

Singling out the importance of income, the report comments that 'one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times' is that 'full time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty line.'

Report Card 9, 'Children Left Behind', uses a new method of measuring how far the most disadvantaged children have been allowed to fall behind those at the median level in health, educational and material well-being.