SOURCE GUARDIAN: Women
bearing 86% of austerity burden, Commons figures reveal
Labour has urged the Conservatives to carry out a gender
audit of its tax and spending policies, as the shadow equalities minister,
Sarah Champion, published analysis showing that 86% of the burden of austerity
since 2010 has fallen on women. Champion said research carried out by the House
of Commons library revealed that women were paying a “disproportionate” price
for balancing the government’s books. The analysis is based on tax and benefit
changes since 2010, with the losses apportioned to whichever individual within
a household receives the payments. In total, the analysis estimates that the
cuts will have cost women a total of £79bn since 2010, against £13bn for men. It
shows that, by 2020, men will have borne just 14% of the total burden of
welfare cuts, compared with 86% for women. Many of the cuts announced in
earlier years by former chancellor George Osborne, including a four-year freeze
on many in-work benefits and reductions in the universal credit, are yet to
bite. Hammond has loosened Osborne’s fiscal rules, but he will press ahead with
most of the pre-planned austerity measures – though the tax credits rebellion
forced the government to promise not to look for fresh savings from the welfare
bill in future years. Mary-Ann Stephenson, co-director of the Women’s Budget
Group lobby group, condemned the Tories in light of the new research. She said:
“The chancellor’s decision to continue with the decisions of his predecessor to
cut social security for these low income families, at the same time as cutting
taxes, is effectively a transfer from the purses of poorer women into the
wallets of richer men.” The government publishes an analysis of the
differential impact of its policies at different points on the income scale,
but does not carry out a gender analysis.
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