Media Round-up: February 2019

Guardian Letters
Letters: Forget the Brexit blame game for now, and fight back
4th February 2019

Few maintain that any form of Brexit will benefit our country, but we should be clear that women will suffer most: a Fawcett Society and Women’s Budget Group report shows that women will be hit hardest by an economic downturn.

Birmingham Live
The benefit cap is hitting Black Country single mums the hardest
Annie Gouk & Kelly Ashmore, 8th February 2019

Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, director of UK Women’s Budget Group, said the figures came as no surprise. She said: “The government was warned when it first introduced the benefit cap that it would hit women with dependent children hardest, but they continued. Social security should be based on need, not an arbitrary limit introduced to make the government look tough, with little regard to the impact on the lives of those pushed further into poverty.”

Ekklesia
Treasury Committee calls for assessment of Budget equality impact
17/02/2019

The Women’s Budget Group (WBG) has welcomed the recommendation from the Treasury Select Committee that the next budget should include “quantitative analysis of the equalities impact of individual tax and welfare measures in all cases where data are available”.

Pass Blue
Women and Brexit: Their Voices Are Just Not Heard
Rhona Scullion, 20th February 2019

A report released last year by the Women’s Budget Group and the Fawcett Society, another organization that promotes gender equality, said that most economists believed Brexit would lead to a downturn in gross domestic product and likely “result in further cuts to government spending which will have disproportionate impact on women, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.”

The Times
Women MPs have had enough of the boys’ club
Alice Thomson, 26th February 2019

Research from the Women’s Budget Group and the Runnymede Trust suggests that minority ethnic women have been hit hardest by austerity.