Threat of child poverty as wealth marrying into more wealth

Child poverty is likely to increase because the rich are increasingly marrying within their own ranks, a think tank has warned.

Only 16 per cent of women now in their early 30s are married into a higher social class, less than half the 38 per cent among those born in 1958 who did so, a study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found.It said the trend was a serious concern because the children of well-off couples got more time and money devoted to them – risking a decline in social mobility and increased hardship at the bottom.

The study was based on analysis of Understanding Society (2009-10), the British Cohort Study and the National Child Development Study by the think tank as part of a wider look at “women’s aspirations and expectations across generations”.

It also found a significant increase in the number of women marrying men seven or more years older than them which has almost doubled over the period to one in five.

According to the IPPR analysis, in 1991 around two in five 33-year-old married women (39 per cent) had husbands from the same social class – based on occupation – but almost as many (38 per cent) had “married up”.

By the time the same questions were asked of women born in 1970, that gap had grown to 45 per cent against 32 per cent.