5 July 2010

Study shows that last month’s emergency budget “looks like the worst for women since the creation of the welfare state”
 
A gender audit of the Budget, commissioned by Yvette Cooper, and carried out by the House of Commons Library shows that women will bear a disproportionate burden

It found that of the £8bn net revenue to be raised by financial year 2014-15, nearly £6bn will be from women, in contrast with just over £2bn from men.

Responding to the study’s findings, Yvette Cooper said:
   
“I cannot recall any budget that has ever had such a severe attack on women in the history welfare state. It shows neither Cameron nor Clegg have any understanding of the reality of millions of women's lives. They simply don't get that things like the child tax credit help millions of women manage to balance work and family life.”

“This Budget seems to be reaching back to a pre-war approach to families. They've cut support for children more savagely than anything else so far -- with billions of pounds being cut from child benefit, child tax credits, maternity support and child trust funds. And this is ideological not economic.”

The study also shows that women are still more heavily hit - even if you put aside all the cuts in support for children. They are more affected by the cuts in things like housing benefit, cuts in upratings to the additional pension, public sector pensions or attendance allowances, and they benefit less than men from the increases in the income tax allowances. 

This study doesn’t include the impact of public spending cuts. As women make up more of the public sector workforce they will be more heavily hit by the public sector pay freeze and the projected 600,000 net public sector job losses.

The audit involves on broad estimates by the House of Commons library including assumptions and calculations based on government data.

 Key Findings:

• Of £8.1bn net personal tax increases/ benefit cuts, an estimated £5.8bn (72%) is being paid by women and £2.2bn (28%) is being paid by men.
• Support for children is being cut by £2.4bn – including cuts in Sure Start maternity grant, health in pregnancy grant, child benefit and tax credits. The majority of this support is paid to women. A further £560m cut from the Child Trust Fund is not included in the gender audit.
• Even excluding support for children, women still pay £3.6bn (66%) compared to men paying £1.9bn (34%). This is because women are more heavily affected by things like housing benefit cuts and the switch to CPI uprating of the additional state pension and public sector pensions.

For more information click here for the Gender Audit background note.