Children say what makes their peers poor

Children without a mobile phone or who fail to wear the correct school uniform are seen as poor among their peers, says research published today.

A fifth of children surveyed said that owning a mobile phone was as important as having books at home.

The research also revealed that 44% of children connected not going on school trips with being poor and two out of five said not wearing a proper school uniform was a sign of poverty.

Other indicators included not giving presents at birthday parties, going to school without breakfast, not having a safe place to play or not owning a computer to do school work. 

Hilary Fisher, director of the Campaign to End Child Poverty, said: “It is interesting that for children it seems the visible indicators of poverty are the ones that they are most sensitive about.”

But attitudes towards poverty did vary greatly across the United Kingdom. In the North East, 78% of children felt not having a safe place to play was a sign of being poor, against a UK average of 25%. And in East Anglia 47% of children connected poverty with not owning a mobile phone, compared to the UK average of 19%.

Children in the South West also placed more importance on giving presents at birthday parties in comparison with the rest of the UK.

The survey, commissioned by the Dare to Care campaign, looked at the attitudes of 727 children aged 7 to 16 towards poverty.

Dare to Care is run by Community Service Volunteers and the Campaign to End Child Poverty and it aims to recruit 35,000 volunteers to tackle child poverty by March 2008. 

More information

Dare to Care

CSV

Campaign to End Child Poverty

Essential information on poverty

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