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New report shows that child poverty is rising in rich countries |
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Written by Staff Writer
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Feb 13, 2007 at 05:17 PM |
Get away from my stuff!
A new report published today by UNICEF finds that the proportion of children living in poverty has risen in 17 out of 24 industrialised nations of the OECD over the past decade. This amounts to some 40 -50 million children growing up below national poverty lines in the world’s richest countries.
At the top of the league tables are Denmark and Finland with child poverty rates of less than 3 per cent. At the bottom are the United States and Mexico, with child poverty rates of more than 20 per cent. The figures refer to relative poverty defined as households with income below 50 per cent of the national average (the median).
According to the report, the UK is one of only four countries, (with Australia, Norway, and the United States) where there has been a significant fall in child poverty rates over the latest 10 year period for which data are available. When relative poverty is measured at 40 per cent of the national median (as opposed to 50 or 60%), the UK rises higher up the league which suggests the UK is doing a better job than some others at protecting the very poorest children. The UK Government is singled out for its commitment to reducing child poverty and the report suggests it is on course for reaching its first target of a 25 per cent reduction by 2004/2005. But the UK still has one of the highest child poverty rates in the rich world – 15.4 per cent of the child population. Norway is the only country where child poverty can be described as “very low and continuing to fall”.
Drawing on original research, Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005, produced by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, compares data from different countries and asks what is driving child poverty rates upwards and why some OECD countries are doing a much better job than others in protecting children at risk.
Three forces - social trends, labour market conditions and government policies – are the key determinants of child poverty rates. The rise in the average age of parents, the educational age of mothers and the proportion of mothers in work, for example, tends to increase the economic resources available to children. Conversely the decline in earnings for fathers, particularly those at the bottom end of the income scale, as is the case in 7 of the 13 countries surveyed for this report, will significantly increase the risk of higher numbers of children growing up poor.
Because of YOU, these poor bastards will never amount to anything.
The report emphasises the capacity of governments to reduce child poverty rates and demonstrates that higher government spending on family and social benefits is clearly associated with lower child poverty rates. On average, government interventions reduce by 40 per cent the rates of child poverty that would theoretically result from market forces being left to themselves. In the UK, family and child-oriented taxes and benefits have played a very significant role in reducing ‘market’ child poverty, by 10 percentage points from 25.4 to 15.4 per cent. Governments in the countries with the world’s lowest levels of child poverty reduce ‘market poverty’ by 80 per cent or more.
There is considerable variation in poverty rates - from 3 per cent to 15 per cent – even in countries with broadly similar levels of overall government spending. This variation appears to suggest that it is how the money is spent, ie the extent to which children are afforded priority in the allocation of government resources, rather than the actual levels of spending overall, which makes the difference to the amount of resources available to children. Many countries appear to have the potential to reduce child poverty below 10 per cent without a significant increase in their spending overall.
They know you're afraid...
The report explores the subject of resources for children by disaggregating social spending into different categories. More than half of the 28 OECD countries with data available increased the percentage of GDP devoted to social expenditures between 1990 and 2000. However most of the extra spending was allocated to pensions and health care and in many countries the overall social spending allocated to child and family expenditures actually declined over the decade.
The report acknowledges that children may benefit from government transfers in addition to those that can be labelled as child and family related benefits, such as income tax allowances and tax credits by which some governments seek to benefit low-income families. Intrinsic to this report is specially commissioned research which calculates the effects of government tax and benefit policies on children in relation to other age groups.
The contrast between the UK and France illustrates the choices and trade-offs that governments must make. The UK, with its target of eliminating child poverty by 2020, explicitly favours young children, especially those of low income families whereas the French tax and benefit system does not favour any particular age group. Despite this, the child poverty rate in the United Kingdom is double that of France, suggesting that that problem in the UK is not lack of governmental concern but the fact that low-income parents receive a very high proportion of their income from government and a very low proportion from paid employment. Benefits universally provided, though apparently more expensive, avoid this ‘poverty trap’.
The research highlights the challenges involved in defining and measuring child poverty but urges all OECD governments to establish credible targets and timetables for the progressive reduction of child poverty. For most countries a realistic target would be 10 per cent, or 5 per cent for those where this has already been achieved. While insisting that relative income should remain a leading indicator of poverty, the report acknowledges its limitations as a measure of actual material standards of living. It commends the UK Government for its leadership in establishing a range of indicators that measure actual material deprivation - including changes in health and nutrition, clothing and housing and participation in social activities – in addition to income poverty.
Welcoming the research, David Bull, Director of UNICEF UK says: “The most serious problems facing our societies in the industrialised world have their roots in child poverty. Allowing the kind of poverty that denies a child the opportunities that most children consider normal, is a breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an instrument to which almost all OECD members are committed. Making child poverty history is not just a mantra for the developing world. Reducing the upward trend in child poverty rates must be a priority for all governments.”
To download the report, in PDF format, click here.
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Last Updated ( Feb 27, 2007 at 01:12 PM )
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World