Public attitudes towards social mobility and in-work poverty

a report published by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (June 2013)

Introduction - background and methodology

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission is an advisory non-departmental public body (NDPB) of the Department for Education, the Department for Work & Pensions and the Cabinet Office.

The Commission was established with a remit to:

• publish an annual report setting out progress made in improving social mobility and reducing child poverty in Great Britain;
• provide published advice to ministers at their request on social mobility and child poverty; and
• act as an advocate for social mobility beyond government by challenging employers, the professions and universities amongst others to play their part in improving life chances.

This research was undertaken to explore current attitudes to factors related to social mobility and in-work poverty among the general public.

The research used a TNS/BMRB omnibus survey with a representative sample of 2,272 adults (aged 16+) across England, Scotland and Wales.

Respondents were interviewed face-to-face in their own homes using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) devices between 15th and 31st March 2013.

Respondents in Wales and Scotland were over sampled to allow for more detailed analysis of responses in these countries, however survey weights have been applied to ensure the overall results are representative of the adult population of Great Britain.

Full text (PDF 21pp)

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