WORKING class kids are HALF as likely to end up getting a good job later in life, a damning report has revealed.
The Social Mobility Commission’s annual State of the Nation report also said children from middle class backgrounds are 80 per cent more likely to end up in professional backgrounds than their poorer peers.
Their paper delivered a devastating verdict on Theresa May’s record in No10 – concluding that income between the rich and poor has barely shifted during her three years as PM.
The study said social mobility has stagnated “at virtually all life stages” and inequality will remain entrenched in Britain “from birth to work” without radical action from the Government.
Even when people from a disadvantaged background land a professional job, they earn 17 per cent less than their privileged colleagues, the report said.
Overall, those from working class backgrounds earn a quarter less a year than those from middle class backgrounds.
The Social Mobility Commission called on ministers to provide additional funding for older teenagers in education and to extend free childcare to more low-income families, in an effort to break down barriers.
The findings will come as a further setback to Mrs May, who entered Downing Street in 2016 promising to tackle the “burning injustice” of social inequality.
The report – the first since new commissioners were appointed last year following the mass resignation of their predecessors led by former Labour cabinet minister Alan Milburn – said the numbers from professional backgrounds who were in professional jobs had actually risen slightly, from 59 per cent in 2014 to 60 per cent last year.
In contrast, last year only 34 per cent of those from working-class backgrounds had professional jobs, slightly up from 32 per cent in 2014.
Even when those from working class backgrounds succeeded in entering the professions, the report found that they earned on average 17 per cent less than their more privileged colleagues.
For women, the position was even worse, with working class women in professional jobs paid 35 per cent less than men from more affluent backgrounds.
“Being born privileged means you are likely to remain privileged,” said commission chairwoman Dame Martina Milburn.
“But being born disadvantaged means you may have to overcome a series of barriers to ensure you and your children are not stuck in the same trap.”
Education Secretary Damian Hinds told the BBC: “Social mobility is a very difficult thing to move.
“And, actually, we have had social immobility issues in this country for decades, for generations.”
Reuters
The report found that while there was twice the number of 16- to 18-year-olds in further education as there were in school sixth forms, the level of funding for the sector had fallen by 12% since 2011-12.
While increasing numbers of students from disadvantaged backgrounds were entering university, they were more likely to drop out before graduating.
The report called for a “significant increase” in funding for all 16- to 19-year-olds in education, with a special “student premium” for the disadvantaged.
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