In Opposition and in Government, the Coalition parties have pledged to make the UK the most family friendly country in Europe. But little action has been taken to that end.
Today, Relationships Foundation, the think tank for a better connected society, is publishing its Pressure Gauge, comparing the pressures on families across Europe. It shows there is much to do, and highlights where the Government should focus its activity.
Most damningly, British families are the third most pressured in Europe, with only those in Romania and Bulgaria being worse off.
The Pressure Gauge
The Pressure Gauge is an index consisting of 25 indicators drawn from official Eurostat, Eurofound, and OECD data. These have been selected based on the Conservative Manifesto’s understanding of pressure: ‘lack of time, money worries, the impact of work, concerns about schools and crime, preventing unhealthy influences, [and] poor housing,’ and grouped into four domains: financial pressures, work pressures, caring and parenting pressures, and living environment.
Findings
Overall, only families in Romania and Bulgaria are under more pressure than British families. This is despite the fact that in 2009 the UK’s GDP per capita was $35,165 (World Bank figures). Romania’s was $7,500, Bulgaria’s $6,423.
The greatest pressures in the UK are financial, with household debt (excluding mortgages), childcare costs and living costs pushing us to the top of the table.
• UK households with dependent children experiencing “difficulty” of “great difficulty” in making ends meet make up 20.9% of the total population.
• 14 % of UK and German households with dependent children experience ‘highly critical’ debt burdens compared to 1% of Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian households.
• For UK families childcare costs represent 23.5% of family income, twice the percentage for French families, three times that for German families and four times the percentage for families in Sweden.
• 15.4% of Britons live in households that experience housing cost overburden. By contrast, only 1.8% of the French population experience housing cost overburden.
We do better overall on work pressures, but at one end of the spectrum we have long working hours and high numbers working unsocial hours, and at the other we have high numbers of people living in workless households.
• Britons work some of the longest average weekly hours in Europe (43). The Scandinavians work some of the fewest hours: Norway (39.2), Denmark (40.2), Finland (40.3) and Sweden (40.9). 25% of men in the UK work over 50 hours a week compared to 8% of Norwegian men.
• The Dutch work the most unsocial hours with about a fifth of the Dutch workforce (20.9%) usually working in the evening and/or at night. However, the UK comes third with 17.7%. Norway is among the least pressured at 10.2%.
• The UK has the second highest rate of low work intensity with 12.6% of adults working less than 20% of their total work potential during the past year.
Many European countries put greater caring burdens on their citizens than we have in the UK, although we currently have the second worst maternity and paternity provisions (as well as an imbalance between the two).
• The aggregate statutory provision of full-rate-equivalent (FRE) paid maternity and paternity leave shows the UK to be the second worst in Europe with 9.6 FRE weeks. This compares to 14 weeks for Germany, 16 for Italy and 18 for France and 20 for Denmark.
Finally we have one of the poorer living environments in Europe, again coming third, behind Bulgaria and Estonia. This is evidenced in our high adolescent fertility rates, high levels of underage drunkenness, and relatively high levels of teenage drug use.
• In teen drinking the UK was once again in the ‘high pressure’ group with 47% of 15 year olds having been drunk at least twice. This time the UK came after Denmark at 57%. France (25%), Italy (20%) and Greece (19%) were at the lower end of the spectrum.
• In the UK 2.59% of births were to women aged 15-19, the second highest percentage in Europe with Bulgaria (3.85%) as the most pressured. The UK had almost two and a half times the percentage in France (1.17%) and Germany (1.06%) and over four and a half times the 0.56% in Denmark.
Aim
The aim of the index is to bring clarity to what ‘family friendliness’ means, to show the Government where most effective action can be taken, and to enable voters to hold them to account come the next election. Relationships Foundation intends to update this index each year.
Commenting, Michael Trend, Executive Director of the Relationships Foundation, said:
“Our Pressure Gauge is being developed in order to measure progress towards the goal of making Britain the ‘most family friendly’ country in Europe. It will be updated annually, will provide the framework for press and policy comment as we hold government to account, and promote greater awareness of ways in which families are undermined, and may be supported.”
“As we, with others, develop a means to guide activity and measure progress the rhetoric of the Coalition Government will surely develop a hollow ring if it fails to address the growing concern about a lack of clear strategy for the family.”
“Sideline family policy and you court systemic failure. The clamour for a change in approach from the heart of government is growing: a year on from the general election it is time the Coalition got its act together on family policy.”
Click here to read more.
For further information, please contact John Ashcroft, Researcg Director, on 01223 909 408, or j.ashcroft@relationshipsfoundation-org.stackstaging.com