Thu 11 March 2021:
Over half of the population in UK believes the coronavirus outbreak has driven greater social inequality over the past few months.
The Social Mobility Commission said its annual survey of public attitudes revealed 56% of adults believed social inequality had increased during the pandemic. A quarter said Covid had made no difference to inequality and 16% were unsure.
This survey has also highlighted the point that several organisations have been talking about for the past few months, claiming the socially disadvantaged have been the hardest hit by the pandemic.
The findings came after years of declining social mobility and a near-decade of rising child poverty, the report said. “Now without urgent, targeted action, social mobility looks set to go backwards and the attainment gap between the wealthy and disadvantaged will grow ever wider.”
“This poll dramatically underlines public concern about growing social inequality. Government, employers and educators should listen and act. The most disadvantaged – at home, school or work – should now be put centre stage in any recovery plan,” Steven Cooper, interim co-chair of the commission said.
The online poll, carried out for the Social Mobility Commission by YouGov, surveyed a UK-wide representative sample of 4,693 adults between 27 January and 1 February.
The proportions of people saying they felt better or worse off financially than they did 10 years previously had remained largely static over the past four years – until this year, when there were significant increases in both groups.
The commission said it was not possible to say from the survey whether this dramatic recent change in people’s perceptions of their financial health was related to the coronavirus outbreak, though it said it could be connected to the varying fortunes of those who were able to stay in work and save money, and those who lost their jobs.
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
