Middle-class children benefit from a "glass floor" protecting them from slipping down the social scale in Britain, a report has said.
The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission said better-off families managed to provide educational and social advantages to stop their slide. It found less able, richer children were 35% more likely to become high earners than brighter, poorer peers. The government said its reforms were helping disadvantaged pupils catch up.
The report for the commission, which advises the government on social mobility issues, was based on a long-term study of 17,000 British-born children born in a single week in 1970 that measured their ability at the age of five.
It said wealthier families helped their children accumulate skills valued by the labour market and they also used social networks to secure internships and employment.
The report, by Abigail McKnight of the London School of Economics, said parental help may start with providing a good home-learning environment in the early years, and continue with seeking out better schools, offering help with homework and exam preparation.
Parental education level and attendance at a private or grammar school all had a significant impact over and above the influence of academic attainment, it said.
The report also highlighted a "private school wage premium", where recruitment to high-earning occupations is biased towards those educated in private schools.
It said: "Not only do privately educated children achieve well in examinations and on this basis go on to have highly successful careers, but private school education also bestows a 'little extra something'.
"Some of the 'extra' is made up of soft skills - for example - presentation, conduct in social settings, accent - which have little to do with productivity and a lot to do with what economists refer to as 'signalling'."
