Rich-poor health gap 'biggest ever'
The gap in life expectancy between those living in the richest and poorest areas is at its highest level since records began, according to a new study.
In 1990/91 the poorest 10 per cent of people in the UK were 1.6 times more likely to die prematurely than the most affluent ten per cent, researchers from Bristol and Sheffield universities found. But by 2006/07, the poorest were more than twice as likely to die early, defined as under the age of 65.
The team examined the number of premature deaths in UK regions where personal wealth was in the top 10 per cent, compared to those in the bottom 10 per cent.
They discovered the mortality gap by geographical area in the 2000s was wider than in any similar time period since records began in 1921, and has increased every year without exception since the early 1990s.
The report said: "The last time in the long economic record that inequalities were almost as high was in the lead up to the economic crash of 1929 and the economic depression of the 1930s."
Bethan Thomas, a researcher at the University of Sheffield, warned that the coalition Government’s health and housing policies could cause the gap to widen in future years.
"We’ve seen a widening despite 13 years of a Labour government trying to reduce the gap," she said. "With NHS re-organisation and targets being dropped, there now is some concern about what’s going to happen in future.
Changes to housing benefit rules are another matter of huge concern. There is a link between inadequate accommodation and health. Because of benefit caps, areas where claimants can live are likely to shrink and the standard of privately rented accommodation they might be forced to live in could fall."
