Relevant Research

• BBC, 2014 - Income/wealth

  Richest 20% had 6x more disposable income than poorest 20%.
• Social Mobility Foundation, 2023 - Income/wealth

  Professionals from WC backgrounds earned avg. £6,291 less annually than peers from professional-managerial backgrounds.
• Homeownership + income/wealth

  Those from higher classes are more likely to receive substantial inheritances which can be used to purchase homes - lower classes lack this financial support.
• Big Issue, 2022 - Income/wealth

  Children born into wealthy families are 6x richer by their 30s than poorer peers - attributed to assets + inherited wealth.
• Bourdieu

  SC inequality maintained through economic/social/cultural capital being distributed unequally .
• Wilkinson & Pickett - 'The Spirit Level'

  • Societies w/ greater income inequality have worse health/crime/educational outcomes than countries w/ equality like Japan or Sweden.
• Hansard, 2025 - Poverty

  2/3 of ppl living in poverty are in working households
• Guy Standing - the 'precariat'

  • New social class due to globalisation + insecure job market
  • Unstable occupations
  • No career progression
  • Weak occupational identity
  • Irregular salary
  • Socially excluded
• Social Mobility Commission - Social mobility

  1. Ppl from professional bg.s are 2.5x more likely to enter professional jobs than those from working bg.s
  2. Ppl from WC families are 2.3x more likely to stay in WC professions
  3. 45% of parent's earning disparities are transmitted to children ➡️ generational inequality
• Gov. UK - Social mobility


  Lower WC kids from outer West London have 46% likelihood of upward mobility but in NI it's 28%.
• Blandford - Education

  Disadvantaged children are 2 academic years of learning behind their advantaged peers.
• Institute for Fiscal Studies - Education

  57% of FSM kids achieve a good lvl of development (compared to 74% peers)
• Gov. UK - Education

  • 5 years after graduation, FSM ppl earn 11.5% less than peers
  • Class inequalities stronger at postgrad. lvl; higher proportion of ppl doing advanced degrees are from professional bg.s
• Social Mobility - Employment

  WC individuals underrepresented in professional occupations
• BBC - Employment

  Only 18% of senior civil servants from WC bg. - kind of 'class ceiling'
• Gov. UK - Health

  • 9-year age gap for M's general life expectancies between most/least deprived areas. 7-gap for W.
  • 19-year age gap for M HEALTHY life expectancies between most/least deprived areas
  • Infant mortality 2.5x higher in most deprived areas
• UoGlasgow - Health

  Multimorbidity (multiple long-term conditions) comes 10-15 years earlier in deprived areas than affluent areas