The McCarrison Society - Janet Street-Porter and the New Poverty

Janet Street-Porter and the New Poverty

This is the full text of a letter, a shortened version of which was published in the INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, 4th May 2008.

Sir,

Janet Street-Porter (in her article on the rise in debt 27th April) is right, the poorest suffer most from debt; it worsens the poverty which damages the health and education of their babies. She pin points a cause of new poverty, preventable had Government acted. We wish to draw attention to another and rising cause of poverty which also could have been prevented. The roots of intergenerational poverty are in poor maternal diets, low birthweights and poor brain development at conception and in the womb creating the cycle of deprivation.

Low birthweight is the single most powerful predictor of children at risk to chronic ill health, poor brain development leading to poor school achievement, mental ill health, behavioural disorders and hence lacking ability to acquire skills that would take them and their families out of the poverty trap.

In 1953 to 1973, 5.6% of children were born at low birthweights. The 2005 UNICEF report has the UK at 8%, far higher than any Western European nation and higher than Finland 4%, Samoa 4%, and Cuba 6%. The Black (1980), Acheson (1998) and Wanlass (2006) reports as well as Nicholas Winterton's Select Committee on Maternity Services 1990 all called for action on this issue. In 1972 there was sufficient scientific data to predict that neglect would lead to a rise in brain disorders, which has now happened. A parliamentary question by Lord Morris of Manchester ([HL2561] to Lord Warner, 5th Dec 2005 : Column WA83) revealed that the direct NHS costs of mental ill health had risen over five fold from 1983 to over £5 billion in 2004.

The Zacchaeus Trust spotted the governmental myopia about (adult) maternal poverty with their Family Budget Unit's research into minimum income standards in 1999. They urged the Minister to increase unemployment benefits on which it was plainly impossible to live a healthy life; They have not been increased in real terms for decades. The Trust's view is that benefits are so low that poor maternal nutrition is inevitable which is now supported by data on pregnant women in the East-end of London. The problem is made worse by the rise of food and utility prices.

Acknowledging the problem two years ago for the first time the Government will introduce child benefit at the 25th week of pregnancy, thus missing the point that an adequate diet at conception and during early pregnancy is the most effective remedy.Recognising the consequences in poor school achievements) The Government is also to spend £4 billion into literacy and numeracy training for school leavers. This is a measure too late as the brain and its capacity is formed in the womb.

Without a major new initiative focussed on young women, conception and pregnancy outcome, the poverty trap can only escalate.

Professor Michael A Crawford, Chairman, McCarrison Society, Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition, London Metropolitan University.

and

Rev. Paul Nicolson, Chairman, Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, 38 Ebury Street,

London SW1W 0L

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