Women’s equality in the UK – A health check

13.6
13.7
13.8
13.9
13.10
law to assess both the individual and cumulative impact of all future tax and
benefit changes on equality between women and men
Changes to the social welfare system and access to family benefits
The overall impact of the tax and benefit changes, particularly when combined with the changes
to Housing Benefit, will hit women more than men. Calculations have shown that the cost to
women of all changes, including Housing Benefit, will be £5.76bn. (See Appendix: 26) The cost to
men will be lower – £2.295bn. 6 The House of Commons Library analysis of the Comprehensive
Spending Review in 2010 found that women would suffer 72% of the tax and benefit cuts
proposed by the Emergency Budget. 7
Linking benefits and tax credits to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rather than Retail Price
Index (RPI) for inflation targeting was flagged as the biggest change to welfare policy in the
June 2010 Budget. 8 This will affect everybody receiving benefits and tax credits. Benefits,
including tax credits, make up a greater percentage of women’s total income than men’s (18%
for women compared to 8% for men). The Institute of Fiscal Studies has estimated that the
difference between the CPI and the RPI is likely to be close to 2% each year. 9 This will mean that
the incomes of people on benefits will decline relative to the general population over time. Since
women are more likely to be affected, this will increase their poverty relative to men. The CPI is
a lower index than the RPI as it does not include housing costs and mortgage interest payments.
Thus, the long-term impact of this measure will mean smaller benefit increases in the years
ahead, with the effects compounding over time. This difference is small in any one year but,
considered over many years, the effect is significant.
Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit
Child Benefit rates have been frozen until April 2014 – amounting to a cut in real-terms. In
addition, families with a higher-rate tax payer will no longer be entitled to Child Benefit.
Figures show that 4.6 million women who receive Child Tax Credit (CTC) will be affected by the
changes to the benefit which came to force in January 2013 and 98% of those affected by the
changes to Child Benefit will be women, including women caring for a child and working women
with children. 10
Freezing of Child Benefit, changes to tax credits and reduction or withdrawal of benefits for
pregnant women will have a significant and disproportionate impact on women. For some
women, Child Benefit is the only income they have in their own right. 11 Cuts to this benefit will
increase many women’s dependence on their partners which will be particularly damaging for
women in abusive relationships. 12 Until recently, Child Benefit was a universal benefit paid to
the main carer – in 94% of cases the mother - in recognition of the fact that people who have
6. Stephenson, M. (2011) TUC Women and the Cuts Toolkit: How to carry out a human rights and equality impact assessment of the spending
cuts on women. TUC: London http://www.tuc.org.uk/equality/tuc-20286-f0.cfm
7. Stratton, A. (2010) ‘Women will bear brunt of budget cuts, says Yvette Cooper’, The Guardian, 4th July 2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/
politics/2010/jul/04/women-budget-cuts-yvette-cooper
8. Browne, J. and Levell, P. (2010) The distributional effect of tax and benefit reforms to be introduced between June 2010 and April 2014: A
revised assessment. Institute for Fiscal Studies http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn108.pdf
9. Brewer, M. (2010) Welfare Savings. Institute of Fiscal Studies http://www.ifs.org.uk/budgets/budgetjune2010/brewer.pdf
10. Wintour, P. (2013) ‘Women are the losers in child benefit cuts, says labour’, The Guardian, 6th January 2013 http://www.guardian.co.uk/
society/2013/jan/06/child-tax-credits-women?INTCMP=SRCH
11. Lister, R. (2010) ‘Did the Budget pass the fairness test from the perspective of women and families?’, Touchstone, 21st July 2010 http://
touchstoneblog.org.uk/2010/07/did-the-budget-pass-the-fairness-test-from-the-perspective-of-women-and-families/
12. Stephenson, M. (2011) TUC Women and the Cuts Toolkit: How to carry out a human rights and equality impact assessment of the spending
cuts on women. TUC: London http://www.tuc.org.uk/equality/tuc-20286-f0.cfm
130 Women’s equality in the UK: CEDAW shadow report 2013