The post-war dream of doing better in life than your parents has faded, with the UK now a country where opportunities for upward social mobility and economic progress are increasingly limited, according to research.
It contrasts with the golden age of social mobility that the United Kingdom enjoyed during the early years of the Queen’s reign, when an expanding economy allowed a generation to take up professional jobs and have their own home.
But today, as the monarch celebrates his platinum jubilee, the prospects for social mobility of disadvantaged youth are bleak, the investigation said.
“For the generations that grew up at the beginning of the 21st century, the dream of doing better in life, let alone climbing the income ladder, is disappearing,” the think tank concluded. Sutton Trust.
The “room at the top” that opened for the platinum jubilee generation born in the 1950s, which benefited from the expansion of the post-war welfare state, has shrunk, he said. . For many, the chances of getting out of the class structure are now greater than the chances of getting on it.
“This new research shows the extent to which opportunities are still determined by the background and surprisingly predicts a drop in income mobility for the poorest youth, driven by the impact of the pandemic and, more recently, by the cost of living crisis, “said Sir Peter Lampl. , president of the Sutton Trust.
The study highlighted how housing ownership during childhood has become an increasingly important indicator of wealth mobility, and noted that the general decline in home ownership in the UK United for the past two decades has disproportionately affected those from poorer backgrounds.
Of those born in 1958 who grew up in rental housing, 74% had become homeowners at the age of 42. This boom in real estate mobility had reversed sharply in 2017. At that time, only 51% of 42-year-olds were raised for rent. the houses were owned.
In contrast, among those whose parents owned the house where they lived, the decline in home ownership was much less pronounced. In 2000, 88% of 42-year-olds born to parents who owned a home were themselves owners, a proportion that had only dropped to 81% in 2017.
The social mobility of today’s disadvantaged youth has been undermined by the pandemic, especially those children who lost hours of school learning during confinement. “If the learning losses of current generations are not offset, it looks like there will be devastating consequences for social mobility,” the research says.
He noted that children in the richest 20% of families were up to 14 percentage points more likely to have paid guardians to supplement their education than those whose parents have low incomes. This, the report says, is an example of “marked divisions” in home settings and parental investments that “do not bode well for future levels of social mobility.”
Lee Elliot Major, co-author of the study and a professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said: they will leave long – term scars for today’s generations. Unless radical action is taken, our research suggests that they are facing a worsening of mobility prospects. “