WBG analysis finds cuts to benefits would drive over 100,000 lone parents and 200,000 children into poverty
WBG and Gingerbread are calling on the Government to follow through with the promise to uprate benefits in line with inflation.
UK Budget Assessment
The impact on women of July budget 2015: A budget that undermines women’s security
A further £13bn slashed from an already depleted social security budget will undermine the security of women and drive poor families deeper into poverty. This is one of several policies outlined by the newly-elected Conservative government in the summer budget delivered on 8th July.
The Chancellor George Osborne wants to deliver a budget surplus by 2019/20. To that end he published a fiscal charter committing this and future governments to maintaining a budget surplus even during times of economic stability and growth.
Yet maintaining a surplus in itself isn’t the key to economic security and limits the sharing of risk through public investment in social and physical infrastructure. The fiscal charter and the measures announced in this and all budgets since 2010 simply shift social risks further away from collective sharing and onto individuals, in particular women. The result will be increased personal debt, a rise in maternal poverty and greater care burdens on women.
Key points raised in the Women’s Budget Group budget analysis:
The impact of these latest measures discussed in detail below must be judged alongside the austerity programme implemented over the last five years. The Women’s Budget Group has conducted detailed analysis of every budget, spending review and key policies (such as universal credit) for the implications for women and gender equality.
WBG and Gingerbread are calling on the Government to follow through with the promise to uprate benefits in line with inflation.
A Pre Budget Briefing from the UK Women’s Budget Group on 'Pensions and Gender' - Spring 2021
WBG member Susan Himmelweit talks to the Progressive Economy Forum about the 2018 Autumn Budget (Podcast)
The Autumn Budget makes minor adjustments rather than tackling fundamental issues concerning Universal Credit, education, social care, health,...