Everyone knew the emergency budget on June 22nd would hold a few shocks and surprises, but the plan to cut the public sector provision by 20% was a bitter pill to swallow. Leading finantial experts have stated the budget as 'regressive' and will force the poor to live below a standard of living maintained by the natuional wage. Now many women are living in fear of losing their job, but also being further unsupported through state benefit reforms.
Furthermore, a leaked letter written by the home secretary shows that “there was recognition at the most senior levels of government that it risked widening inequality”. The Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading women’s rights group, filed the first ever legal challenge to a British Government’s budget on August 1st.
The Fawcett Society, believe that Conservative chancellor George Osborne’s budget is ‘unlawful’ as the there was no investigation into the budget’s potential impact on minority groups. Ceri Goddard, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, claims that the treasury broke the law.
“The question is – had the government followed the proper process, would parliament have voted for the budget? If they had known that 72% of the cuts would be borne by women, would they have voted for the budget?”
How will women be affected under these cuts? In the UK, 40% of the population work in the public sector, with 65% of the full-time employees being women and 85.4% of women occupying part-time positions. The cuts will affect 600,000 posts in either pay freezes or job loses.
The story is worse for women receiving benefits. The decision to cut the Sure Start maternity grant will affect 262,000 women, but no men. Housing benefit reforms will also affect 1 million more women than men and the decision to freeze child benefit will affect many more. Single parent families will be counting the pennies when the income support stops on their child’s fifth birthday, instead of when they turn seven. Nine out of ten of every ten lone parents are women.
Home secretary for equality and well-being Teresa May expressed her concerns about the budget in a letter to George Osborne and David Cameron. Dated two weeks before the budget was published, May said that “there are real risks that people ranging from ethnic minorities to women, to the disabled and the old, would be disproportionately affected.” May went on to say that steps needed to be taken to avoid breaking inequality laws, or "there is a real risk of successful legal challenge".
The letter was leaked to the Guardian two days after The Fawcett Society filed the papers against the treasury. May’s comments may have been ignored by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, but they definitely have not gone unnoticed by the Fawcett society.
The gender equality duty was introduced in 2007 as an amendment to the Sex discrimination act to promote the equality of all genders and to eliminate all unlawful discrimination. Under this act, all public bodies have a responsibility to ensure all service provisions do not further widen the gender gap, and the government has a duty to take urgent action should there be any evidence of discrimination.
The UK treasury are yet to respond to the challenge that they have broken the law, and have requested a 28 day extension to the standard 21 day notice to submit their acknowledgement of service. This could be a groundbreaking legal case, but we shall have to wait to see if the government manage to undo the progress our mothers and grandmothers have made before us. As David Cameron welcomes a new daughter into the world, maybe he should take a minute to think what her standard of living would be like if he was not around to support his wife Samantha.
If you would like to help the Fawcett Society on their campaign please contact them via their website www.fawcettsociety.org.uk
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