An article examined measures enacted in the Pensions Acts of 2007 and 2008 that had been designed to make state pensions more inclusive for those with periods out of the labour market for family caring, as well as encouraging more saving through private pensions by those with low to moderate earnings. It said that the benefits to women would be patchy and less than expected. It considered policy alternatives that would give women a better pensions deal.
Source: Jay Ginn and Ken MacIntyre, 'UK pension reforms: is gender still an issue?', Social Policy and Society, Volume 12 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Dec
An article highlighted the risks for women of the government's reliance on service provision through the third sector and localism, in the absence of a national strategy and infrastructure funding. It used the case study of a recent evaluation of the special funds for the sexual violence third sector for the Government Equalities Office.
Source: Carol Hayden, 'What price localism? The case for government investment in specialist, community-based services by and for women', Local Economy, Volume 27 Number 8
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Nov
A briefing paper reviewed research on the impact of public spending cuts on women's services. It covered the issues of: the voluntary and community sector; women's welfare and poverty; violence against women and girls; health; education; and employment.
Source: Women and the Cuts 2012, Women's Resource Centre
Links: Briefing | LGA press release | Civil Society report
Date: 2012-Nov
An article said that in many locations social housing had became a 'safety net tenure' rather than offering stability and opportunity. Price sensitivity was beginning to exclude those on lower incomes from the private rented sector. These changes prompted by the diminishing availability of social housing, unregulated private sector rentals, low pay, and benefits reform had a disproportionate impact on women. The accompanying insecurity undermined the conditions necessary for widening employment options. There was a need to expose the gendered nature of housing policy as a matter of women's human rights.
Source: Lynn Vickery, 'Deepening disadvantages in housing markets for women', Local Economy, Volume 27 Number 8
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Nov
A briefing note summarized a project that took a life-cycle perspective to understand how taxes and benefits affected incentives to work and earn more, and the way in which they redistributed income. Changes to the tax and benefit system over the previous two decades had strengthened its ability to reduce inequalities in lifetime income. The single most important change was the increase in work-contingent support for low-income families with children, beginning with working families' tax credit, which was especially powerful in reducing inequality among women in the low-education group. This was partly because it was targeted at those with low income: but also because it increased employment among a group with relatively low attachment to the labour market, thus reducing inequality in both gross and net income. Furthermore, because time out of the labour market could have permanent effects on future earnings, encouraging women to work when children were present could reduce lifetime inequalities as well as cross-sectional ones.
Source: Mike Brewer, Monica Costas Dias, and Jonathan Shaw, A Dynamic Perspective on How the UK Personal Tax and Benefit System Affects Work Incentives and Redistributes Income, Briefing Note 132, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Briefing Note
Date: 2012-Oct
A report for the equal rights watchdog examined whether the introduction of commissioning procedures and funding cuts were having a disadvantageous affect on the provision of women-only services. Service areas covered by the study included domestic violence, offenders and ex-offenders, health, sexual violence and abuse, homeless women, skills and employability support, and 'one-stop-shops' providing a range of services. All the service providers covered by the study had seen some elements of their funding cut or frozen, and most reported that the cuts were having a real effect on service provision.
Source: Andy Hirst and Sini Rinne, The Impact of Changes in Commissioning and Funding on Women-Only Services, Research Report 86, Equality and Human Rights Commission
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Oct
An article examined the attitudes of young women (aged 18 30) towards pensions, and whether they differed according to socio-economic status. The ability and willingness of people to contribute to a pension depended, among other things, on the pension offered by employers, the pension requirements in place, and immediate financial needs. Pension policy needed to take into account women's employment histories, which were often fragmented and diverse, when considering young women's attitudes towards pension saving.
Source: Liam Foster, '"I might not live that long!" A study of young women's pension planning in the UK', Social Policy and Administration, Volume 46 Number 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Oct
A report said that the 2012 Budget measures would further undermine gender equality. An additional cut of £10 billion from 'welfare' spending by 2016-17 would have a 'devastating' impact on women, one-fifth of whose average income consisted of benefit payments. Women accounted for two-thirds of employment in the public sector, and would therefore face the brunt of a further 30,000 job losses in the sector between 2011 and 2017. And because more women worked in the public sector than in the private sector, with a particularly high concentration in certain regions, they would be worst affected by proposals to introduce 'regional pay' rates in the public sector.
Source: The Impact on Women of the Budget 2012, Women's Budget Group
Links: Report | WBG press release
Date: 2012-Apr
A report said that measures announced in the coalition government's 2011 Autumn Statement would intensify losses of jobs, income, and services for all but the richest women.
Source: The Impact on Women of the Autumn Financial Statement, 29 November 2011, Women's Budget Group
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Jan