Consultation Responses and Parliamentary Briefings

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: The Two-child Limit

Oct 6, 2023: This is a briefing for MSPs ahead of the Scottish Government debate on reversal of the UK Government's Two-Child Benefit Limit. We fully support calls to scrap the two-child limit at the UK level, which harms women and children across Scotland, directly pushing many into deeper poverty. In Scotland, we support calls for the Scottish Government to invest in mitigating the UK Government’s policy on grounds of equality and human rights.

Date of publication: October 2023.

Engender submission of evidence to the Scottish Parliament Finance and Public Administration Committee call for views on its pre-budget scrutiny 2023-24

Aug 26, 2022: Engender welcomes this opportunity to comment on the Committee’s pre-budget scrutiny and, in particular, its focus on the impact of the cost of living. Current spiralling inflation is highly gendered, and it is imperative that the Committee interrogate the ways in which the Budget cumulatively impacts on women and men as part of a cross-portfolio approach throughout the Scottish Parliament.

Date of publication: August 2022.

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: International Women’s Day 2022 - #BreakTheBias

Mar 8, 2022: Engender welcomes this opportunity to mark International Women’s Day 2022 with this briefing and the Parliament’s debate. This year’s theme - #BreakTheBias – aims to highlight conscious and unconscious discrimination against women in all walks of life. Preventing and eradicating violence requires serious action to secure women’s social, economic and cultural equality and the rights of women and girls. UN Women has estimated that the impact of Covid-19 for women’s equality could mean the loss of 25 years’ worth of progress, and Scotland is not immune. Measures to respond to the pandemic have disproportionately affected women’s access to paid work - especially younger women and women of colour - and the volume of care that women provide.

Breaking the structural bias that leaves women poorer, further from power and opportunities and more vulnerable to violence, abuse and harm demands urgent attention and action.

Date of publication: March 2022.

Engender Submission of Evidence to the Scottish Parliament Social Justice and Social Security Committee Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWAG) and Domestic Violence Thematic Session

Mar 2, 2022: Engender welcomes this opportunity to participate in a thematic discussion on violence against women and girls and domestic abuse and ahead of the meeting have outlined here our current work in this area for the Committee. Engender does not provide violence against women services but works across a number of relevant policy domains.

Date of publication: March 2022.

Engender submission of evidence to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee call for views on its Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2022/23

Oct 7, 2021: Engender is grateful for the opportunity to provide evidence to the Committee in support of its pre-budget scrutiny for 2022 – 2023. Our submission focuses on the transformative potential of gender budgeting in the realisation of women’s equality and the need for gender to be strategically analysed across subject committees including, but not only, the Social Justice and Social Security Committee.

Date of publication: October 2021.

Engender response to the Scottish Government consultation on Adult Disability Payment

Apr 7, 2021: Engender welcomes this opportunity to comment on the Scottish Government’s draft regulations for the new Adult Disability Payment (ADP). We have been engaged on work around gender and social security since the 2010 programme of “welfare reform” and over that period we have sought to highlight the ways in which women and women’s equality, safety, access to resources and human rights are all affected by the design and delivery of social security.

Date of publication: April 2021.

Engender response to Mark Griffin MSP’s consultation on a Proposed Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council Bill

Feb 5, 2021: Engender welcomes this opportunity to respond to Mark Griffin MSP’s consultation on Proposals for a Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council Bill. We have kept our comments to four broad themes – the changing nature of workplace risk, the need for and characteristics of a Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council (SEIAC), gender and health, and the additional concern that Covid-19 places on women’s health and the nature of work.

Date of publication: February 2021.

Engender submission of evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee inquiry on Welfare policy in Scotland

Feb 1, 2021: This is Engender's submission of evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee inquiry on Welfare Policy in Scotland. The design of the social security and ‘welfare’ system is one of the key drivers of inequality in the UK and it remains a critical lever available to ensure women have access to an adequate standard of living, equal access to choices and opportunities, and safety and security. Women are more likely to rely on social security for all or part of their income than men due to a greater risk of poverty, gendered experiences of the labour market which push them into poorer paid and insecure employment, the impact of men’s violence, and deeply-ingrained norms around the provision of care and childcare.

Date of publication: February 2021.

Engender submission of evidence to the Scottish Parliament Social Security Committee inquiry on the role of Scottish Social Security in Covid-19 recovery

Oct 15, 2020: Women are twice as likely to rely on social security for all or part of their income than men due to a greater risk of poverty, gendered experiences of the labour market which push them into poorer paid and insecure employment, the impact of men’s violence and deeply-ingrained norms around the provision of care and childcare.

Engender is acutely aware of the scale of impact the Covid-19 pandemic presents to women and to inequality in Scotland and we do not underestimate the challenges of meeting the various demands this will place on Scottish and UK public services. However, we are strongly
of the view that the principles of Scottish social security require it to build on existing commitments to meet new and expanding needs. While we are concerned about the adequacy of the system as a whole to respond to the huge and complex dangers to women’s equality and risk of poverty, there are specific groups for whom there is evidence of building need and opportunity for policy-makers to react in the more immediate term.

Date of publication: October 2020.

Engender submission of evidence to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee inquiry on the Economics of Universal Credit

Mar 24, 2020: This document is a submission of written evidence to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee inquiry on the Economics of Universal Credit.

We welcome this opportunity to submit our views to the House of Lords Select Committee’s inquiry into the economics of universal credit (UC). Our years of work in this area and our feminist analysis of UC and its impacts leads us to conclude that UC is failing women. It is ensuring, increasing and embedding women’s poverty and contributing to pervasive sexism whereby the state punishes women for decisions around their reproductive rights, motherhood and the labour market, and is further reducing equality between women and their partners.

Date of publication: March 2020

Engender response to the Social Security Scotland Draft Equality Outcomes Consultation

Feb 14, 2020: This document is a response to the Social Security Scotland Draft Equality Outcomes consultation. We are concerned that the draft outcomes put forward in this consultation do not take sufficient cognisance of women’s experiences and lives and are therefore insufficiently targeted to address inequalities in access to social security in Scotland.

Date of publication: February 2020.

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Universal Credit

Nov 20, 2019: This is a briefing ahead of the Scottish Labour Debate in the Scottish Parliament on Universal Credit on 20th November 2019. Parliament Member's Business Debate on Charities, Scotland and Holyrood on 30th October 2019. We fully support ending and substantively reforming the elements of the UK ‘welfare’ system which are having a harmful impact upon women across Scotland. This briefing sets out the particular concerns and impacts of universal credit, the two-child limit and the benefits cap.

Date of publication: November 2019.

Engender response to the Scottish Government consultation on Scotland’s National Transport Strategy

Oct 29, 2019: This document is Engender's response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on its National Transport Strategy. The use of Scotland’s transport systems is highly gendered. Women are the majority of public transport users, and the minority of drivers and cyclists. Women also tend to make more complex and frequent journeys due to caring responsibilities and working patterns. Scotland’s current transport systems, however, do not reflect the different needs of women.

Date of publication: October 2019.

Engender submission to the Scottish Parliament Social Security Committee inquiry on benefit take-up

Oct 25, 2019: This document is a submission of written evidence to the Scottish Parliament Social Security Committee inquiry on benefit take-up. We welcome the Committee’s inquiry into benefit take-up and the opportunity to outline our concerns as well as the constructive, yet ongoing, discussions with the Scottish Government to ensure equalities considerations are addressed.

Date of publication: October 2019.

Engender submission of evidence to the UK Government Scottish Affairs Committee inquiry on welfare policy in Scotland

Oct 23, 2019: This document is a submission of written evidence to the UK Government Scottish Affairs Committee inquiry on welfare policy in Scotland. This submission was originally made in September 2019, but was not published until mid-October owing to the possibility of prorogation of the UK Parliament.

The design of social security and ‘welfare reform’ has a disproportionate impact on women. Around 20% of women’s total income comes from the benefits and tax credit system, compared with 10% of men’s. Women also rely more on public services, and as a result, up to 86% of net ‘savings’ between 2010 and 2020 will come from women’s incomes, not accounting for additional cost savings sought as a result of upcoming economic changes. Disabled, BME and refugee women, lone parents, unpaid carers and other marginalised groups are at even greater risk of poverty and destitution. We therefore welcome this opportunity to highlight issues relating to ‘welfare’ and social security in Scotland which we hope will help inform the committee’s work.

Date of publication: September 2019.

Engender response to the Scottish Government consultation on disability assistance in Scotland

Jun 3, 2019: Engender has been engaged on work around gender and social security since the 2010 programme of Welfare reform and over that period we have sought to highlight the ways in women, who are twice as likely to rely on social security for their income, have been systemically and grotesquely disadvantaged by reforms.

We therefore welcome this opportunity to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the future of devolved disability assistance within Social Security Scotland. In the UK, women are a small majority of disabled people and, as a group, disabled women are amongst the very hardest hit by welfare reform.

Date of publication: June 2019.

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Social Security Committee Debate on In-Work Poverty

Apr 22, 2019: This is a briefing ahead of the Scottish Parliament Social Security Committee debate on in-work poverty. The design of social security has profound implications for women’s capacity to be in paid work, and in their experience of poverty once they are employed. This is because women are twice as likely to be reliant on social security as men, and have very different experiences of both poverty and the labour market. In their evidence to the committee’s inquiry, Close the Gap highlighted in-depth the multitude of factors which ensure that paid work is not a route out of poverty for women in Scotland. Despite the policy intention behind Universal Credit (UC), its design contributes to trapping women in poverty and exacerbates inequality between women and men.

Date of publication: April 2019.

Joint Engender and SWA Parliamentary Briefing ahead of the Scottish Government Building a Social Security System Together Debate

Oct 2, 2018: Engender and Scottish Women’s Aid welcome this opportunity to discuss the creation of the Social Security Charter and the importance of ensuring women’s voices are heard in the process. Since 2013 our organisations have worked together to highlight the gender-impact that women accessing social security face.

Date of publication: September 2018.

Joint Response to the UK Government Work and Pensions Committee Short Inquiry into the Impact of the Universal Credit Household Payment

May 10, 2018: Since 2010, the UK Government has pursued an austerity agenda and programme of ‘welfare reform’ which will result in a total of £82 billion of cuts to the social security budget by 2020. This is having an egregious impact on women’s access to resources, security and safety, and therefore on gender equality and women’s human rights. Over the decade of austerity, from 2010 to 2020, 86 percent of net ‘savings’ raised through cuts to social security and tax credits will come from women’s incomes.

Joint Briefing ahead of the Scottish Parliament Social Security (Scotland) Bill Stage 3 Debate on Universal Credit

Apr 24, 2018: Ahead of the Stage 3 Debate in Parliament, Engender, along with The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, One Parent Families Scotland, Advocard, The Health and Social Care Alliance, Poverty Alliance, Scottish Women’s Aid, and the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers have produced a briefing in support of Amendment 144 Universal Payment: Payment to Joint Claimants to the Social Security (Scotland) Bill.

Date of publication: April 2018.

Engender Submission to the Scottish Parliament Social Security Committee on the Social Security (Scotland) Bill

Aug 23, 2017: Engender welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Committee’s call for views. Over the last two years, we have worked with our partners at Scottish Women’s Aid, Close the Gap, the Scottish Refugee Council and Carers Scotland to highlight the link between women’s inequality and the existing UK social security system.

Date of publication: August 2017.

Engender Submission to the Scottish Parliament Social Security Committee Call for Evidence on the Two-child Limit for Tax Credits and Universal Credit

May 18, 2017: Engender welcomes the opportunity to present evidence to the Social Security Committee on the two-child limit. We have been working with other women’s organisations in Scotland over the last few years to chart the impact of ‘welfare reform’, and the ways in which it is widening inequality between women and men.

Analysis of the two-child limit by Child Poverty Action Group calculates its impact as a loss of up to £2,800 every year per child. In addition, it is projected that these deep cuts to social security for families with more than two children will push up to 200,000 more children into poverty, and will impact approximately 510,000 families in 2019-20.

Date of publication: May 2017.

Engender Submission to the Scottish Parliament Social Security Committee Call for Evidence on the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill

May 9, 2017: Engender welcomes the introduction of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill, which ambitiously sets targets to eradicate child poverty by 2030. The introduction of the proposed legislation signals a commitment by the Scottish Government to continue to implement measures to build a fairer Scotland. Though we welcome the Bill, we wish to highlight the importance of understanding the gendered dimension of poverty, as it is our firm belief that understanding and tackling women’s poverty in Scotland will be central to the success of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill.

Date of publication: May 2017.

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Child Tax Credit and Child Element of Universal Credit ('Family Cap') Debate

Apr 24, 2017: Engender's briefing in advance of the Scottish Parliament debate on Child Tax Credit and Child Element of Universal Credit (known as the 'family cap', and including the so-called 'rape clause').

Date of publication: April 2017.

Engender Response to the Scottish Government Consultation on Universal Credit (Claims and Payments) (Scotland) 2017

Mar 15, 2017: Engender welcomes the opportunity to respond to the consultation on the proposed regulations respecting two of the devolved flexibilities related to Universal Credit.

Date of publication: March 2017.

Engender Response to UK Government Consultation on Exceptions to the Reforms Which Limit the Child Elements in Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit to a Maximum of Two Children

Nov 28, 2016: Engender fundamentally rejects the principles behind both reducing vital social security for mothers of more than two children, and making an exception where a child is conceived as a result of rape.

Date of Publication: November 2016.

Engender Response to Scottish Government Consultation on Social Security in Scotland

Oct 28, 2016: Engender welcomes this opportunity to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation on social security in Scotland. Together with partners at Scottish Women’s Aid, Close the Gap, the Scottish Refugee Council and Carers Scotland, we have consistently worked to highlight the links between women’s inequality and the current UK social security system. Earlier this year we released a policy report on Scotland’s new powers over social security, recommending a suite of ways in which new powers can be engaged to increase women’s equality in Scotland.

Date of publication: October 2016.

Engender Response to the Scottish Government Consultation on a Child Poverty Bill

Sep 30, 2016: Engender welcomes this opportunity to comment on the Scottish Government’s plans for a Child Poverty Bill for Scotland. We have consistently worked to highlight the inextricable links between women’s economic inequality and child poverty, and this consultation response is based on the need to mainstream gender throughout the development of any new legislation. Women are twice as dependent on social security as men, the gender pay gap persists at 14.8% in Scotland, 62% of workers that earn below the living wage are women, and pervasive violence against women undermines women’s access to resources and financial autonomy. Disabled women, black and minority ethnic (BME) women, lone mothers, unpaid carers, and refugee and asylum seeking women, amongst other groups are particularly at risk of poverty due to their gender and other forms of inequality and discrimination. Statistics show that a small majority of women in Scotland live in poverty, but these only take stock of figures for single-headed households and mask the extent of women’s poverty due to income inequality within many couple households.

Date of publication: September 2016.

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Welfare Reform Committee Debate on Women and Social Security

Nov 27, 2015: In respective budgets since 2010, between 70% and 85% of cuts to public spending on benefits, taxation, pay and pensions have come from women’s incomes.

Engender welcomes this parliamentary debate and the Welfare Reform Committee’s report on women’s social security. In partnership with other women’s organisations, we have worked to highlight discrimination against women within the austerity agenda. ‘Welfare reforms’ and wider austerity measures are undermining progress towards gender equality, and have a major impact on women’s lives.

Since the Welfare Reform Committee held its inquiry into women and welfare, the context for women has worsened. The House of Commons Library estimate that 70% of the £34 billion worth of cuts announced in the UK Government’s ‘summer budget’ will fall on women. Further extensive cuts will have been announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement by the time this debate takes place. As a result of structural gender inequality, a similar gender profile can be expected. Certain groups of women, including lone mothers, refugees, disabled women, unpaid carers and women experiencing domestic abuse face multiple and particularly extreme impacts as a result.

The role of the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament to protect social security for women is therefore more vital than ever. Strategic action is manifestly needed, or else existing commitments and political ambition on gender equality will not be achieved. Along with Scottish Women’s Aid, Scottish Refugee Council and Close the Gap, we are calling for a high-level summit on women’s social security, to develop such an approach.
This briefing sets out the current context for women and our proposals regarding forthcoming and existing powers over social security and related policy areas.

Date of publication: November 2015.

Engender Response to the Scottish Government Consultation on the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Act Regulations and Guidance

Aug 26, 2015: Engender submission to the Scottish Government consultation on the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Act regulations and guidance.

Date of publication: August 2015.

Engender Submission to the Scottish Parliament Welfare Reform Committee Inquiry Into Women and Welfare

May 1, 2015: Since 2010, £26 billion worth of cuts have been made to benefits, tax credits, pay and pensions. 85% of this has been taken from women’s incomes.
Engender welcomes this opportunity to submit our views to the Welfare Reform Committee’s inquiry on women and welfare reform. This submission highlights the links between discrimination against women within the welfare reform agenda with other areas of gender inequality.

Date of publication: May 2015.

Women's and Equalities Sector Joint Statement to the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare: Women, Further Devolution and Social Security

May 1, 2015: The Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare is an intergovernmental group with ministerial representatives from Scottish and UK governments working around the post-Smith Commission devolution of some elements of social security. This is a joint statement to that working group from (in alphabetical order): Close the Gap, Electoral Reform Society Scotland, Engender, Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, Inclusion Scotland, Lead Scotland, NUS Scotland Women's Campaign, One Parent Families Scotland, the Poverty Alliance, Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Scottish Refugee Council, Scottish Women's Aid, Scottish Women's Budget Group, Shelter Scotland, Voluntary Action Scotland, Women's Support Project, YouthLink Scotland, YWCA Scotland, and Zero Tolerance.

Date of publication: March 2015

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Welfare Reform Committee Debate on Welfare Reform and the Smith Commission

Dec 19, 2014: A briefing paper for MSPs in advance of the Welfare Reform Committee debate on welfare reform and the Smith Commission on 18 December 2014.

Date of publication: December 2014.

Engender Response to the Scottish Parliament Welfare Refom Committee Consultation on the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Bill

Aug 28, 2014: Engender's response to the Welfare Reform Committee's consultation on the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Bill.

Date of publication: August 2014.

Engender Parliamentary Briefing - Welfare Debate 2014

Aug 13, 2014: A briefing paper for MSPs in advance of the Scottish Government debate on welfare in the Scottish Parliament on 13 August 2014.

Date of publication: August 2014

Engender Submission to the Expert Working Group on Welfare Call for Evidence on Social Security in an Independent Scotland

Mar 5, 2014: Engender's response to the Expert Working Group on Welfare's second call for written evidence on social security in an independent Scotland.

Date of publication: December 2013.

Engender Response to the Scottish Government Consultation on Changes to Passported Benefits

Mar 5, 2014: Engender's response to the Scottish Government consultation on changes to passported benefits that will arise as a result of the introduction of Universal Credit and personal independence payment (PIP).

Date of publication: October 2012.

Engender Response to the Discussion Paper on Tackling Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland

Mar 5, 2014: Engender's Response to the Government Discussion Paper on Tackling Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland

Date of publciation: June 2008.