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

• In 2011/12, 2.3m children (17%) in the UK were in relative poverty

• Government target to abolish child poverty by 2020

• 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 action to 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.

Key problems identified:

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

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

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

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

OECD income equivalence scale

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

Rates of smoking by marital status in low SES group(%)

Single man 44.6

Married man 23.1

Cohabitating man 54.5

Single woman 43.2

Married woman 22.4

Cohabitating woman 52.8

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)

Results

There were 2,285,000 children living in relative poverty in the UK in 2011/12

Number of children in household

1 child 2 children 3+ children

Total

Living with married parents 339545 339545 565909 1245000

Living with cohabitating parents

103636 103636 172727 

380000

Living with a single parent 180000 180000 

300000 660000

Total 623182 623182 1038636 2,285,000

Children in poverty with a smoking parent

Living with a smoking single mother 259459Living with a smoking single father 26463Living with married parents of which one smokes

367132

Living with married parents of which both are smokers

99671

Living with cohabitating parents of which one smokes

264133

Living with cohabitating parents of which both are smokers

71708

Total 1,088,567

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

Results

Results

Weekly cost of smoking in poor households*

Smoking single mother  £24.67Smoking single father  £23.97Married parents - mother smokes  £24.67Married parents - father smokes  £23.97Married parents - both are smokers  £48.64Cohabitating parents - mother smokes  £24.67Cohabitating parents - father smokes  £23.97Cohabitating parents - both are smokers  £48.64

Based on income thresholds used to define relative poverty, households in poverty with at least one parental smokerspend between 5 and 15% of their income on smoking

*Takes into account estimates of number of cigarettes and type of tobacco product smoked

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

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

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

Acknowledgements

Charmaine BelvinTessa Langley

References

1.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]

2.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]