Engender blog
Women lose in Summer Budget 2015
Wednesday’s
budget made for extremely grim listening and reading. Low-income women and
their children will be pushed into poverty at the expense of increased spending
on defence and tax breaks for the affluent. Women were always going to be
penalised by this budget, not least because of the well-trailed £12 billion
worth of cuts to the ‘welfare’ budget, but some of the detail and framing
language is even worse than predicted.
Our recent report sets out why gender inequality has risen as the result of welfare reform. Women’s caring roles and low-paid jobs mean that different groups of women are particularly impacted by austerity measures. Summer Budget 2015 is no different. The House of Commons Library has already issued analysis estimating that 70% of the £34bn pounds of savings to be made by 2020/21 will come from women’s pockets. As HMT has not published an Equality Statement alongside its budget, outlining how different groups will be affected by its spending choices, we can only assume that it does not care that this will undermine gender equality, and increase women’s and children’s poverty.
A Widening Gap - new report shows women bear the brunt of welfare reform
Since 2010, £26 billion worth of cuts have been made to benefits, tax credits, pay and pensions. 85% of this has fallen on women’s incomes.
To coincide with the Welfare Reform Committee’s Inquiry on Women and Welfare Reform, Engender, together with Close the Gap, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Scottish Refugee Council and Scottish Women’s Aid, have today launched a report examining the impact of welfare reform on women in Scotland.
Statement to the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare
Today we are publishing a joint statement to the new Joint Ministerial Group on Welfare, which was established by the UK Government command paper and draft clauses on further devolution published in January.
‘Welfare’ and women: an update
Last week, George Osborne announced that the Treasury will start publishing annual breakdowns of public tax spend per head, in a move that will apparently increase transparency for taxpayers.
Cue rounds of analysis raising bones of contention online. It is in no way surprising that ‘welfare’ has been at the heart of debate, with many commentators quick to point out that our esteemed HMT has chosen to chunk up the data such that ‘welfare’ spending is represented extremely misleadingly indeed.
Guest blog: Women and work: what next? (Indyref Thursday #7)
In the run-up to the referendum, we'll be publishing views on women's equality and Scotland's constitutional futures. This week, Close the Gap development officer Lindsey Millen writes on the implications of the referendum for the women and work.
After months of campaigning, discussion and debate, what is arguably the biggest political event of a generation is almost upon us. With just over two weeks to go until the referendum, Close the Gap launched a new working paper ‘Women and work: What comes next in a post-referendum Scotland?’ at a Constitutional Café event with Engender, Electoral Reform Society Scotland, and Scottish Women’s Aid last Saturday. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the implications for women and work in the context of the independence debate, to describe what needs to happen to effect positive change, and to identify the levers that are available in the event of either outcome.
We already know women face a multitude of barriers and inequalities in the labour market. The gender pay gap remains stubbornly high at 13% in a labour market characterised by persistent occupational segregation, with women clustered into low-skilled, low-valued, and low-paid work at one end of the scale, and denied access to the top roles at the other. Women overwhelmingly shoulder the burden of care, for children, older people and disabled people, and often find themselves faced with downward occupational mobility on returning to work after maternity or other care leave.
RSSDownloads
Engender Briefing: Pension Credit Entitlement Changes
From 15 May 2019, new changes will be introduced which will require couples where one partner has reached state pension age and one has not (‘mixed age couples’) to claim universal credit (UC) instead of Pension Credit.
Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Condemnation of Misogyny, Racism, Harassment and Sexism
Engender welcomes this Scottish Parliament Debate on Condemnation of Misogyny, Racism, Harassment and Sexism and the opportunity to raise awareness of the ways in which women in Scotland’s inequality contributes to gender-based violence.
Gender Matters in Social Security: Individual Payments of Universal Credit
A paper calling on the Scottish Government to automatically split payments of Universal Credit between couples, once this power is devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
Gender Matters Manifesto: Twenty for 2016
This manifesto sets out measures that, with political will, can be taken over the next parliamentary term in pursuit of these goals.
Scottish NGO Briefing for UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
Joint briefing paper for the UN Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.
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