Professor John Britton Director, UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, University of Nottingham
Abstract
In 2011/12 17% of children in the UK, approximately 2.3 million, were estimated to be in relative poverty. Cigarette smoking is expensive and places an additional burden on household budgets.
We used publicly available data to estimate the number of children in poverty in the UK who have smoking parents and to estimate the weekly spend on smoking for these households.
Figures for both child poverty and smoking were sourced from the Department for Work and Pensions' Households Below Average Income report and the Office for National Statistics' Opinions and Lifestyle survey. In 2011/12, 1.1 million (48%) children in relative poverty had at least one smoking parent. A family in poverty spent up to 15% of their household income on smoking, equivalent to a weekly spend of approximately £25 for a single mother or £49 if both parents smoked.
Smoking exacerbates poverty for a large proportion of children in the UK. Tobacco control interventions which target low income groups can play an important role in reducing the burden of child poverty.
