VIEW, Issue three, 2012


Website: viewdigital.org in cuts to welfare?


Page 5


Under threat: A mother’s earnings are linked inextricably to child poverty, says Save the Children


‘Transfer of power from purse to wallet will hit women’s rights’


T


reduction in the block grant leading to cuts in pub- lic sector jobs plus an anticipated loss of more than £600 million per year to benefit recipients by 2014-15. The budget 2012 announcement of £2 bil- lion more public spending cuts across the UK threatens a further deflationary impact on our al- ready depressed local economy. What is less well-known is that all of this will


he adverse impact in Northern Ireland of the austerity cuts since 2010 and proposed wel- fare changes is well rehearsed – the £4 billion


By Anne Moore, Policy & Assembly Coordinator Save the Children


have a disproportionate impact on women on low incomes and their children. A gender audit of the UK government’s budget in 2010 found that 72% of cuts will be met from women’s income because women make up more of the public sector work- force and are therefore more vulnerable. Female unemployment in NI is already at a 25-year high and rising. Child poverty in NI in 2009-10 increased to 28% or just over 121,000 children. The government has committed to ending child poverty by 2020, but it is forecast to soar to 35% in NI unless alternative measures and action is taken. With mothers’ earnings linked inextricably to child poverty, it follows that the Executive should adopt a gendered approach to job creation, focus- ing on a living wage, affordable childcare, skills de- velopment and progression.


care provision. NI families spend on average 45% of their net weekly earnings on childcare, making NI the most expensive country for childcare in Eu- rope. Save the Children research shows that low income families are having to turn down jobs or are considering leaving work because they can't af- ford to pay for childcare. A recent study by the IPPR on the likely impact of the Universal Credit shows that many single working mothers working part-time and second earner mums will be significantly worse off. The Welfare Reform Act states that in joint appli- cations universal credit is to be made in a single monthly payment to one nominated person, which will incentivise work for the primary worker (usu- ally the man) and weaken the work incentive for the second earner (usually the woman). This will undermine women’s economic inde- pendence and is expected to have a negative im- pact on child poverty, as money going into the family via the mother is more likely to be spent on the children. A report from the Fawcett Society confirms this


An economic priority must be adequate child-


transfer of power from the purse to the wallet which will set women’s rights back generations. It is the cumulative effect of austerity policies that is so devastating for women who are “bearing the brunt of the cuts to public spending, with record numbers of women out of work, the majority of welfare cuts coming from women’s pockets and es- sential services under threat with women expected to plug the gap”. The latest revelation that the UK government plans to end national wage rates in the public sec- tor will compound the adverse impact on women in Northern Ireland and take an estimated £210m out of the economy.


proper rebalancing of the economy from the privi- leged to the most vulnerable, especially low in- come earning women and their children. For that reason Save the Children is campaigning with Employers for Childcare and Gingerbread NI to ensure that low income, hard-working women are advantaged. We are calling for the UK government to ensure


Social justice demands that we should have


that: single working mothers keep more of their in- comes before losing benefits; second earners keep the first £2,000 of their earnings without losing any benefits, as main breadwinners do and child care support is increased to make sure mothers are not priced out of work.


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