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Parental smoking and child poverty in the UK

Parental smoking and child poverty in the UK. Charmaine Belvin , Tessa Langley, John Britton UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies University of Nottingham. Child poverty in the UK. Poverty profoundly affects children’s lives and ability to fulfil their potential as adults

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Parental smoking and child poverty in the UK

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  1. Parental smoking and child poverty in the UK Charmaine Belvin, Tessa Langley, John Britton UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies University of Nottingham

  2. Child poverty in the UK • Poverty profoundly affects children’s lives and ability to fulfil their potential as adults • In 2011/12, 2.3m children (17%) in the UK were in relative poverty • Government target to abolish child poverty by 2020

  3. Key problems identified: • Lack of any clear measures -- Government distancing itself from the statutory measures in the Child Poverty Act 2010 without suggesting any additions or alternatives. • Absence of a step-by-step plan for meeting targets • Failure to engage with independent projections that poverty is set to increase substantially. This leaves a credibility gap at the heart of the strategy. • Lack of new action on in-work poverty • Limited actionto mobilise society-wide efforts to tackle poverty • Ignoring the impact of additional welfare cuts. This is the elephant in the room in the draft strategy.

  4. Poverty and smoking • Smoking is addictive, expensive and places an additional burden on household budgets • Strongly associated with socioeconomic disadvantage • A potentially important contributor to child poverty • Preventable through effective tobacco control policy

  5. Aims • To estimate the number of children in poverty in the UK who have smoking parents • To estimate the weekly spend on smoking for these households • To generate approximate estimates of number of children who live in poverty as a result of family smoking

  6. Methods (1) Identifying the number of children in poverty • ‘Households Below Average Incomes’ (HBAI) report June 2013 • Children in relative poverty before or after housing costs (BHC or AHC) by marital status of parents and number of children in household

  7. Median Household income, BHC, from 1998/99-2011/12https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/206778/full

  8. OECD income equivalence scale

  9. Methods (2) Estimating the number of children in poverty who have parents who smoke • Assumption that the rates of smoking for routine and manual workers similar to smokers in poverty. • Prevalence by sex and socio-economic classification obtained from Opinions and Lifestyle survey 2012 • Prevalence weighted according to prevalence by marital status •  Rate of smoking by marital status in the low SES

  10. Methods (3) Estimating average spend on cigarettes in poor households with children • Average number of cigarettes smoked per day by R&M workers, by sex (Opinions survey) • Cost of factory-made cigarettes and HRT, including illicit (TMA) • Estimates on the proportion of smokers using each type of tobacco (Opinions, HMRC)

  11. Results

  12. Results A total of 1,088,567 children in poverty, 48% of all children in poverty, had at least one smoking parent

  13. Results *Takes into account estimates of number of cigarettes and type of tobacco product smoked Based on income thresholds used to define relative poverty, households in poverty with at least one parental smoker spend between 5 and 15% of their income on smoking

  14. Income distribution of households in the UK, BHC 2011/12, in decileshttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/206778/full_hbai13.pdf We estimate that this expenditure draws around 200,000, or 9% more, children into poverty

  15. Summary of results • In 2011/12, 1.1 million (48%) children in relative poverty had at least one smoking parent • Weekly spend of approximately £25 if one parent or £49 if both parents smoke • We estimate that this expenditure draws around 200,000, or 9% more, children into poverty • Futher exacerbates poverty in over 1 million children living below the poverty line

  16. Discussion & Conclusions • Use of nationally representative data • But no smoking rates for people in poverty • Use of published reports, not original data  rounding/interpolation error • Smoking exacerbates poverty for a large number of children in the UK • Tobacco control interventions which target low income groups can play an important role in reducing the burden of child poverty

  17. Acknowledgements Charmaine Belvin Tessa Langley

  18. Department for Work and Pensions (2013) Households Below Average Income [Online] Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/206778/full_hbai13.pdf [Accessed: 23/09/13] • Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education (2012) Child Poverty in the UK: The report on the 2010 target [Online] Available from: http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/c/child%20poverty%20in%20the%20uk%20the%20report%20on%20the%202010%20target.pdf [Accessed 25/09/13] References

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