How the well-off make sure their kids cannot fail
Middle class has created a ‘glass floor’
MIDDLE-CLASS parents have created a ‘glass floor’ for their less able children to stop them slipping down the social scale, a study suggests.
Research shows well- off families are ‘ hoarding’ the best opportunities for children who are less academically gifted, to the cost of their poorer peers.
Children from wealthier families but with less academic ability are 35 per cent more likely to become high earners than more gifted counterparts from poor families. Experts said it means wealthier, less intelligent offspring – epitomised by the Tim Nice-But-Dim character created by comedian Harry Enfield – get ahead regardless of ability.
Researchers found that wellheeled parents help struggling children by using contacts and their social networks to find them useful unpaid internships that lead to good jobs.
They may also help to develop ‘soft skills’ such as self- confidence and leadership.
The Social Mobility And Child Poverty Commission report pointed out that the potential for success can even date as far back as the social background of
Highly paid: Tim Nice-But-Dim the child’s grandfather. Commission chairman Alan Milburn, a former Labour Cabinet minister, said: ‘It has long been recognised there is a glass ceiling in British society. This research reveals there is a glass floor that inhibits social mobility as much as the glass ceiling.
‘It’s a social scandal that all too often demography is still destiny in Britain. The Government should make its core mission the levelling of the playing field so that every child has an equal opportunity to go as far as their abilities can take them.’
Mr Milburn, who stood down as an MP in 2010, wants the dis- advantaged to get help with the ‘support, advice and development opportunities’ that middle - class f amilies take f or granted. The study looked at 17,000 people born in the same week in 1970. Factors influencing a child’s success included the level of their parents’ education, the type of secondary school they attend and the highest qualification they achieved.
On examining the participants’ achievements by the age of 42, the report found that ‘ high-attaining children from lessadvantaged family backgrounds are less successful at converting this early high potential’ into highly paid careers.
The report suggested a number of ways to tackle the issue, including the end of unpaid internships, improving the quality of schools in disadvantaged areas, and educating parents.
Study author Dr Abigail McKnight, from the London School of Economics, said: ‘The fact that middle- class families are successful in hoarding the best opportunities in the education system and in the labour market is a real barrier to the upward social mobility of less advantaged children.’
Nick Newman, co- creator of Enfield’s Tim Nice-But-Dim, said the character was inspired by fellow pupils at the private Ardingly College in Sussex, who seemed to enter high- earning jobs regardless of ability.