Social mobility talk not matched by reality
John Freeman
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
There is no doubt that the divide between the rich and the rest has become significantly greater over the past few years, with two seminal events along the way - the financial crash of 2007/08 and the election of the coalition government in 2010.
What's the evidence for this? Well, "bosses" in all types of employment are doing pretty well, from vice-chancellors to bankers, and multi-academy trust chief executives to politicians. For example, MPs' salaries have increased by 16 per cent since 2010. For frontline public sector workers, the operation of the one per cent pay cap has resulted in substantial real-terms decreases. Worse has happened to benefits. The rich have become richer at the expense of public sector workers and the poorest in our society.
For another example, take Kensington and Chelsea Council, one of the most socially-divided councils in the country. It saved a few thousand pounds by installing cladding to Grenfell Tower that had poor fire resistance, while they were sitting on cash reserves of more than £100m, and giving council tax rebates to residents who paid in full - in so doing excluding those on discounts or benefits.
The reality is that just about everyone in the country is feeling the pinch, except the top few per cent of high-earners. That applies to everyone, whether they are in work or not, in relatively high-paid jobs like teaching or the medical professions, working for the minimum wage, or living on benefits. We have had stories of nurses being reduced to using food banks - I just can't believe those who suggest that this is a "life-style choice".
Society becoming poorer leaves the most vulnerable worse off than ever. Anne Longfield, the children's commissioner for England, has undertaken research that shows around 670,000 children - six per cent of the total - live in high-risk family situations, with incomplete data meaning this is certain to be an underestimate.
The UK is, of course, one of the world's wealthiest economies. Yet the Child Poverty Action Group presents compelling evidence that between 2010 and 2014, families who were below average income all got worse off, while more affluent families were largely better off, due to changes in both tax and benefits. This trend is projected to continue through to 2020. CPAG is 50 years old, but it is a sad truth that the numbers of children being brought up in poverty are increasing fast, and so is the depth of their poverty.
In its June report, the Social Mobility Commission quoted Prime Minister Theresa May as saying: "When it comes to opportunity, we won't entrench the advantages of the fortunate few." Read the reports and check the statistics for yourself - I'll leave it to you to decide what is really happening.
We need to hear past the rhetoric. It's easy to talk the social mobility talk, but that is too rarely reflected in reality.