adele baumgardt
TRANSCRIPT
Adele Baumgardt
Co-chairWomen’s Equality Network Wales
Women in Wales and Welfare Reform
Welsh women are:• More dependent on the public sector for
employment than elsewhere in the UK• Have less access to childcare • Have more extreme rural isolation issues and
lack of public transport
The context
• Legacy of demise of industry in poorest areas• Inflexible economy ill suited to women’s
employment needs• Universal credit underpinned by ‘household’
principles
Welfare changes
• Employment support allowance– 5/10 highest claimant constituencies of ESA in
Wales– 50% current claimants women
• Disability Living Allowance and PIP– Higher than average claimants in Wales– Over 50% claimants women
Welfare changes
• Housing benefit– Over 50% claimants in Wales women – Women headed households
• Income support– 97% of all of those who claim IS on the grounds of
being a lone parent in Wales = 29,740 women at risk of the withdrawal of this support if their youngest child is over the age of 5 years.
summary1. Female benefit claimants in Wales and their families will face
significant disruption owing to reforms currently underway, and this is likely to intensify as the number and pace of changes increases with the implementation of the UC.
2. Wales’s higher percentage of ESA and disability benefit claimants
renders it intrinsically more vulnerable to the negative effects of these reforms and, as a result of this, women in the most difficult circumstances risk being impacted most severely.
3. Changes to Income Support will primarily affect women, with lone mothers hardest hit. Almost 30,000 stand to lose Income Support because their youngest child is over five years old.
4. It is not the movement of lone parents off Income Support and on to job seeker's benefits which is an intrinsic concern. If sufficient provisions were made with regard to sanctions, and allowances were made regarding the specific financial pressures that lone parents face, this would be less problematic.
Changes to ESA will affect women both directly - through the potential loss of benefits for more than 8,600 women, or indirectly as the partners of claimants who may face incentives to reduce working
Women and WEN Wales
• Working to help advise Welsh Government on what they can do and how to mitigate these effects
• Linking women in Wales directly to Welsh Government, UK government and policy making
• Working with women across Wales to explore their issues and feedback to political and policy makers
• Women know change is coming but not what and how it will effect them
What is already happening
• Welsh government research and strategies• Advice services review• Campaigns like ‘your benefits are changing’http://www.yourbenefitsarechanging.co.uk/• Cuts watch Cymruhttp://cutswatchcymru.wordpress.com/
What more needs to be done
• Gender Equality Impact Assessments on budgets, economic strategies, employment strategies, public transport etc.
• Make the business case for women’s employment, education, childcare etc.
• Support women’s self employment • Increase (mandatory!) women’s
representation in decision making
Join Women’s Equality Network Wales
wenwales.org
07533558647