Media Round-up: December 2019

Campaign
The Women’s Equality Party is on a quest to reach the ‘switched off’
Brittaney Kiefer, 2nd December 2019

A study by the Women’s Budget Group found that the negative impacts of Brexit would disproportionately affect women. Yet, as much as Brexit has galvanised the women’s movement and the WEP – “There’s a recognition that old-style politics don’t work,” Mayer says – it also threatens to overshadow the party’s agenda.

Huffington Post
Child Poverty Is Not Inevitable. Here’s How We Make It A Thing Of The Past
Jenna Norman, 3rd December 2019

Over the last few years research by the Women’s Budget Group with the race equality organisation, the Runnymede Trust, has shown how cuts to public services and social security reform have hit women especially Black Asian and Ethnic Minority (BAME) women and disabled women harder, plunging many into poverty.

Left Foot Forward
What are the parties saying when it comes to NHS funding? #GE2019
Jenna Norman, 4th December 2019

WBG research has shown how investment in social care would not only address the care crisis, it would have a positive impact on the economy, narrowing the gender employment gap by creating new jobs for women, and removing some of the burden of unpaid work that acts as a barrier for women in the labour market.

Independent
‘We’re only an accident away from having nothing’: How Monzo and HSBC’s new overdraft charges could harm British families
Sophie Gallagher, 5th December 2019

Historically, men in England & Wales were more likely to owe money to the bank, but since 2014, women are more likely to, according to the Women’s Budget Group report from October 2019. Women are also more likely to incur debt to pay for everyday necessities. Debt advice provider StepChange says 61 per cent of those getting into debt to purchase everyday necessities are women.

Guardian
Improving the lives of women and girls
Joint Letter, 18th November 2019

This election we’re passing on all our years of experience. We’re calling on women and allies everywhere to hold their representatives to account on the decisions that matter most.

Newton News
The Gender Austerity
Sedgefield Labour Women, 7th December 2019

Independent think tank the Women’s Budget Group, shows that tax and benefit changes since 2010 will have hit women’s incomes twice as hard as men by 2020. Women will be £1,003 a year worse off by 2020 on average; for men, this figure is £555.

OpenDemocracy
Tampon Tax: Government needs to be held to account over ‘missing’ funds, say campaigners
Sophie Gallagher, 9th December 2019

The Life-Changing and Life-Saving Women’s Sector Funding report, undertaken by the Women’s Budget Group, found more than a third of women’s sector charities have incomes of under £100k, with more than half of these stating an income of less than £10k.

VICE
Race and Migration: What Are the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems Promising?
Kimberly McIntosh, 9th December 2019

More of the same is not good news for ethnic minorities. Research by the Women’s Budget Group and Runnymede Trust found that the past nine years of austerity have hit BME people, particularly women, harder than white men. The poorest black and Asian families lost the most.

METRO
Women, this is what you need to know before you vote
Jenna Norman, 11th December 2019

Independent
Is scrapping the TV licence a feminist issue? Campaigners say so
Sophie Gallagher 17th December 2019

Statistics from the Women’s Budget Group in March 2019 show women are more likely to be living in poverty than men, with the proportion of single women living in poverty at 25 per cent. This is compared with 23 per cent of single men.

Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of single female pensioners are poor, the highest figure in 15 years; and 45 per cent of single parents (90 per cent of whom are women) are living in poverty.

iNews
A family with two disabled children is sleeping in one bed because there is no suitable housing for them
Vicky Spratt, 20th December 2019

Coventry’s housing crisis has received particular focus from the Women’s Budget Group who spotlighted it in a report with the Coventry Women’s Partnership earlier this year. They note that private rents are particularly high for low-income families in the area.

According to them, a family on housing benefit in Coventry faces a shortfall of £173 for a one-bedroom property; £200 for a two-bedroom property and £210 for a three-bedroom property.