Middle-class youngsters set to be worse-off than their parents

A new report is expected to suggest that middle-class children will be materially worse off than their parents in later life.

The report will be published later this week as part of David Cameron’s social mobility and child poverty inquiry. It is set to announce that those children whose parents earn more than average have been abandoned by government policies, which largely target the bottom 10% of children in poverty.

The findings are to be presented to parliament on Thursday by schools minister David Laws. The report is expected to intensify the debate on what Labour leader Ed Miliband described as the “squeezed middle”.

Miliband said that under the coalition government, inflation has risen faster than rates of pay, creating a “cost of living crisis”.

The social mobility and child poverty commission recently called on businesses to “join [the] crusade to provide opportunity for all” after a study found that one-fifth of businesses recruited exclusively from only 10 universities.

Chair of the commission Alan Milburn said, “Many of today’s business leaders benefited from the wave of social mobility which followed the second world war. Some of them are doing good things already to support young people, but many more need to take action if the government’s vision of a more open society with opportunity for all is to be realised.”

Some claim that the “cost of living crisis” is also having a massive impact on low-paid workers, and that government policies have created a “working poor”.

Further reading:

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Ed Miliband promises to tackle ‘cost of living crisis’

Nick Clegg promises free school meals for infants

Working-class boys fall behind in school due to poverty, says report