Ananya Roy
Unicef reaction
Lily Caprani, Unicef's deputy executive director for the UK, urged the country to be "more ambitious" for its children as the disparity among rich and poor children was "damaging their lives and aspirations".
She said the UK "can and must do better", emphasising the need to urgently work towards the government's long-delayed childhood obesity strategy. "Taking children's rights seriously means acting with urgency to make sure no child is left behind," Caprani added.
Government response
Other findings
Denmark ranked in the top three
The UK is lagging behind smaller European countries like
Denmark, Finland and Norway in tackling children's inequality, according
to an Unicef report. The findings prompted
the global agency for children to
call for greater efforts from the government to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.
The Unicef report
,
"Fairness for Children: A league table of inequality in child
well-being in rich countries", studied the gap between children at the
bottom and in the middle of the societal chain. The report considered
four major parameters for studying inequality: income, educational
achievement, self-reported health and life satisfaction.
It ranked 41 nations
from the EU and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) on how they fared on these parameters.
UK report card
Britain was ranked seventh among the 41 countries in income
inequality, with a 39.94% relative income gap and 9.3% child poverty
rate. The relative income gap is based on the disposable incomes of
households with children up to the age of 17 after adding benefits,
deducting taxes and making an adjustment for the different sizes and
compositions of households.
The country was ranked 25th out of 37 rich nations – behind
countries like Chile, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the US – for
equality levels in children's reading, maths and science skills at the
age of 15.
Britain is also falling short when it comes to providing health
benefits to the poor, after being ranked 19th (out of 35) for health
inequality. The report showed 21.4% of children report one or more
health complaints every day in the UK. The relative health gap between
rich and poor children in the UK was 28.87%.Unicef reaction
Lily Caprani, Unicef's deputy executive director for the UK, urged the country to be "more ambitious" for its children as the disparity among rich and poor children was "damaging their lives and aspirations".
She said the UK "can and must do better", emphasising the need to urgently work towards the government's long-delayed childhood obesity strategy. "Taking children's rights seriously means acting with urgency to make sure no child is left behind," Caprani added.
Government response
In response to the report findings, a government
spokesperson said: "We're working to eliminate child poverty and
improving life chances for children and there are now 300,000 fewer
children in poverty."
The National Living Wage scheme introduced by the government is aimed
at "increasing the incomes of the lowest paid", the spokesperson added.
The government is also working towards its free school meal scheme and
is continuing to spend £80bn ($113bn) every year "to provide a safety
net for those who need extra support".Other findings
Denmark ranked in the top three
based
on all four parameters and made it to the top of the overall league
table, with "comparatively low bottom-end inequality in each of the four
domains of child well-being".
Finland, Norway and Switzerland share second place in the overall league table, faring well in all four domains.
Israel and Turkey were ranked lowest in the overall league
table as they have "comparatively high bottom end inequality" in each of
the four domains.
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