SWBG blog

5 principles to drive local action for a gender equal economy

Today we are launching our pre-local election report, Local Spending and Women’s Equality.

Our short paper sets our 5 principles for prospective Councillors to deliver against to help build a gender equal economy.

Councils elected in 2022 have a triple set of challenges to contend with. The cost of living crisis which is rapidly impacting people’s lives, Covid-19 pandemic recovery which impacted many Council run services and the need for practical action on climate change.

To deal with the multiple challenges we’ve set out 5 principles which aim to guide responses that will build in equality:

• Hardwire gender analysis into decision making
• Recognise the gendered nature of poverty
• Build local communities that put care and wellbeing at the centre
• Embrace participation and hear from a diverse range of women
• Understand the role of revenue raising in tackling inequality

With energy prices soaring, managing to get by as the cost of living outstrips wages and social security is a key concern. SWBG conducted a survey between February and March 2022 in which 425 women participated.

The survey demonstrated that the rising cost of living was already having an impact and women are having to make difficult decisions on heating, eating, transport and more. 32% of those who responded said they were unable to manage energy costs before the latest increase on 1 April, and concern about future rises in energy bills was already impacting on people’s household spending.

My husband is disabled, and has been shielding. Our heating costs are higher because he is largely confined to the house, and we will have to cut back on other day to day spend to manage this.

I have no savings left, no chance to find a better paid job due to my caring role. As people go back to the office, this further reduces the jobs open to me due to the continued high prevalence of Covid which restricts our lives.

Energy costs and transport are our highest expenditure after mortgage payments, and these two items take up 80% of my take-home pay. We have very little left to cover food and we are unable to spend on 'fun' activities, holidays etc as a consequence. I am very aware that this is limiting my children's childhood experiences.

Councillors elected in May will have a challenging job to support local communities through these difficult times. Working to build equality into the system in the face of these challenges is a first step building fair communities that work for everyone.

Read the full paper.

If you would like an accessible copy of the paper please contact us on info@swbg.org.uk

Responding to the Spring Statement

Blog by Heather Williams, SWBG Training Lead

When the Chancellor Rishi Sunak made his Spring Statement on Wednesday (23/3/22) he provided little relief for the many people already struggling with rising prices and low incomes.

According to the Women’s Budget Group analysis of the spring statement this year’s Spring Statement took place against the background of a rapidly growing cost of living crisis which will have severe consequences to people’s incomes. With the cost of essentials like food and energy going up, and to public services and public sector pay, as departmental cash settlements were agreed back in the autumn when inflation forecasts were expected to be half of today’s rates.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is forecasting that inflation will reach a high of 8.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022 and will average 7.4% in the 2022/23 financial year - its highest rate for 40 years. This is nearly double the inflation forecast in October 2021.

SWBG carried out a women’s survey over February and March this year which highlights some of the ‘hard choices’ women are already making. For 32% of women who recently told us that they struggled to pay their energy costs and were already making the choice to switch off their heating this Spring Statement is unlikely to allay their fears about their ability to heat their homes or cope with the forthcoming energy price rise. For women with an income of under £10,000 this Statement leaves them with even less room to manoeuvre, our survey showed that 75% (of those who responded with an income of less than £10000) were struggling to manage energy costs and 58% had difficulty affording food.

Our survey of women across Scotland showed that a substantial number of those who took part were already struggling to afford rising costs. As such were switching off heating and missing meals or were having to make decisions to cut back on other spending to afford essentials such as food, energy, housing and public transport costs.

Women also told us about how they were cutting back on spending on winter clothes, leisure activities and home improvements to manage everyday costs as budgets are squeezed.

‘I have a disability which is made worse by cold temperatures. I am fearful about turning my heating on at the moment in case I get a frightening bill. It is preventing me from being able to manage larger payments for repairs in my house.’

‘Due to anxieties around energy costs, I've cut back on spending on winter clothing and shoes’

The Chancellor’s actions benefit the richest more than the poorest and will disproportionately benefit better off men, it leaves women yet again hardest hit.

Notes

The SWBG conducted an online survey between 9^th February and 14^th March 2022, 425 women from across Scotland completed the survey.

8 Priorities for a Feminist Economy in 2022

Blog post by Katie Gallogly-Swan, SWBG Convener, and Sara Cowan, SWBG Coordinator

The COVID-19 crisis has compounded the existing inequalities across the world, likely leading to the biggest regression in gender equality in our lifetimes. Scotland is no exception: because of an economy hardwired to marginalise women, where women are poorer, in more precarious work and undertake the majority of underpaid and unpaid care work, our ambitions for a more equal society have taken a massive blow. If we want to tackle these setups and indeed surpass past progress, efforts to address the widening gap between genders must be redoubled.

In 2022, we will see the roll out of the increased Scottish Child Payment, an increase in the minimum wage floor for social care staff, and free bus travel for those under 22; all efforts that – if designed with the help of gender budgeting tools and methods – can make a huge difference for Scotland’s women and marginalised communities. In this blog, we highlight eight of our priorities for 2022 to tackle the injustices from the pandemic and get us on the road to a feminist recovery.

1. A revolution for the care economy

2022 will see the Scottish Government progress the next steps in the National Care Service. This has the opportunity to transform how care is delivered in Scotland but only if it is properly invested in with secure and well-paid staff, is delivered with a human rights-based approach, responds to local needs, provides universal access to quality services, and puts gender analysis at the centre of the decision-making process. Designing a feminist NCS will take significant investment and political will, but the gains for all of Scotland’s people and particularly for women will be life-changing. While work on the NCS continues, existing care services need further investment to best deliver for care workers, service-users and their families.

2. Rallying women to engage in decision-making

Over the course of the year we’ll be looking to provide opportunities for women to raise their voices as part of the political process at local and national levels. The local elections in May are likely to follow previous trends with low participation compared to national elections, despite the fact that decisions made at local level are crucially important to the public services that are delivered in our communities. It is encouraging to see early efforts to engage diverse candidates considering the under-representation of women, minorities and people with disabilities in our existing councillor cohort. At the national level, the Scottish Government will be undertaking a series of important consultations throughout 2022 on issues critical to a feminist recovery, and ensuring engagement from diverse women will be critical to their success.

3. Transformative investment in public services

The Resource Spending Review will be published in May 2022, setting a multi-year spending direction across services that we interact with every day. Well-funded services are a critical part of a feminist economy, and should be designed to be ‘gender-transformative’, leveraging further equity for all women. Despite talk of fiscal tightening to manage the pandemic stimulus bill, we know that it was the former cuts to services that undermined our resilience when the pandemic shock hit. Ahead of the publication there is an open consultation that we will be responding to and we’d like to hear from you: sign up our series of events that will inform our response and our asks ahead of the Local Elections, take part in our women’s survey launching in February and get in touch if there are particular issues you think SWBG should be covering.

4. Hardwiring equality into our society

The Scottish Government is also consulting on how the Public Sector Equality Duty in Scotland at the start of this year (until 7 March). The duties have been in place for 10 years this year and they provide a legislative underpinning that requires the public sector to embed and promote equality throughout their processes. If you have experience of the Public Sector Equality Duty or working with Equality Impact Assessments we’d love to hear from you to support our response, email Heather to get involved.

5. Getting Scotland on the road to a feminist recovery

Later in the year we expect a consultation on the National Performance Framework. This framework sets the tone for what is valued within our society and economy and throughout 2021 we joined calls with others for the addition of a national outcome on care. This culminated with the publication of a blueprint of what such an outcome could look like and we will continue to work with partners at Oxfam Scotland, One Parent Family Scotland, Carers Scotland and Scottish Care to highlight the importance of including care within these important measures.

6. Gender budgeting at every level of government

Throughout the year we’ll be working with local authorities and women’s groups to build capacity on using gender budgeting at a local level. There’s lots of ways women across Scotland can get involved from attending our training workshops, joining our team of mentors, participating and sharing our Women and the Economy survey due out in February, and joining our deep dive sessions running through February and March.

7. An anti-austerity fiscal framework

The Scottish Fiscal Framework –detailing how to operationalise the fiscal powers recommended for devolution by the 2014 Smith Commission – is due for review with the UK Government in 2022. This is an opportunity to consider how our existing fiscal framework can better deliver for our social and policy ambitions, especially considering the investment needs of recovery and climate action which far outstrip existing trends. A new suite of tax levers and borrowing powers could put the Scottish Government in a better position to tackle inequality and manage economic shocks in the coming years.

8. A Feminist Just Transition

The Just Transition Commission reconvened in early 2022 with the objective to scrutinise government plans and propose policy directives to manage the rapid decarbonisation required to meet Scotland’s climate commitments. With a SWBG appointee on the Commission this year, we want to elevate the importance of an intersectional approach to Scotland’s just transition, using the opportunity of decarbonisation to tackle the diverse inequities in Scottish society. This includes ensuring representation of women across emerging renewable sectors, but also investing in social infrastructure such as care, health and education as critical low-carbon sectors where women are disproportionately represented and underpaid. Care jobs are green jobs, and the success of Scotland’s transition will depend on understanding this task beyond the energy sector to include a systemic and society-wide transformation.

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Reaction to the Draft Budget 2022-23

Responding the Budget Statement for 2022-23 on Thursday 9^th December 2021

This draft budget contained some welcome commitments to tackle poverty and inequality including the increase and expansion of the Scottish Child Payment; freezing higher and top rate income tax; and a pay rise for those working in social care.

These commitments are important steps that will have an impact on women, particularly women on low incomes.

But it’s an opportunity missed to make transformative change in how care is viewed and delivered in our community and leaves question marks over funding local services. Care is the backbone of society. Yet, because it is overwhelmingly carried out by women, it is undervalued and has suffered from chronic underinvestment. Further increasing the minimum wage floor for social care staff, providing funds for local recovery and delivery of services, and financially supporting those providing unpaid care are all steps that need to be taken to deliver a caring economy.

Adult social care

We welcome the decision to set a minimum income floor for staff in the social care sector. However, set at £10.50 this can only be viewed as a first step. After years of underfunding & undervaluation of the social care workforce significant further investment is needed within this highly gendered sector. Alongside increased wages delivery of Fairwork principles within the care sector must be prioritised to properly value and respect those who deliver care across the country.

The wage commitment comes alongside a rise in overall funding to Health and Social Care. While the sums of money involved may sound large this comes at a time of unprecedented challenge in recovering from the pandemic and following years of underinvestment in social care. A further cash injection to support social care delivery now is needed alongside long-term planning for the National Care Service. There is need to deal with urgent staff shortages and recovery of services that were reduced through the pandemic.

There is little in the budget for unpaid carers, despite the numbers of unpaid carers rising sharply during the pandemic as well as the demands placed by caring responsibilities when many services have shut down. Support to unpaid carers and those receiving care is urgently needed including increasing the value and eligibility of Carers Allowance to provide support and protect carers from poverty, as well as access to local services including respite care.

Just transition

Care economy jobs need to be considered fundamental to transitioning to a greener, wellbeing economy and need adequate funding and training.

As necessary commitments are made on how Scotland will tackle the climate crisis in this Budget more needs to be done for Scotland to champion a feminist just transition. There is a risk that the unprecedented investment in decarbonising economic activities will widen labour market gender inequality if a gendered analysis is not built into the planning process. In yesterday’s budget the focus on infrastructure and energy spending, adapting our lived environments and retrofitting homes missed an opportunity to compliment this investment with investment in green social infrastructure.

A comprehensive just transition policy must also expand socially necessary and low-carbon jobs, such as those in the caring economy. Care jobs are green jobs.

Continued support to the Green Jobs Fund must be matched with commitments that this fund can also work to tackle inequality. This could be done by including a portion to specifically support people from areas of socio-economic deprivation, women, lone parents, those belonging to minority ethnic communities, refugees, disabled people, carers and young people to train for and get green jobs.

Social Security

The pre-announced good news on the doubling of Scottish Child Payment was confirmed through the draft budget. This is a vital step towards tackling child poverty in Scotland. We know that to end child poverty, we must solve women’s poverty. This action will be crucial to protect women’s incomes, make progress towards interim child poverty targets, and to mitigate against the withdrawal of the £20 uplift to universal credit.

Funding to deliver disability assistance was committed in this budget an important step in moving this support to devolved delivery. As roll out of this payment moves forward it must be delivered through a human rights-based system that provides dignity and respect to those who receive it.

Tax

We welcome the Cabinet Secretary’s announcement to freeze higher and top rate tax as a method of continuing the use Scotland’s income tax powers to deliver progressive taxation.

There is no continuation of the Council Tax freeze, which may come as a relief to cash strapped local authorities but with it a risk to low income families that raising council taxes will hit them hardest. Efforts to support lower-income households will need to be stepped up in order to protect women's incomes and set Scotland on track to meet its child poverty targets. Scotland needs a fairer form of local taxation and this budget had an opportunity to announcement measures to start investing to agree alternative options. Reform of local taxation and options for local revenue raising should be agreed over the course of the 2022-23 budget year, to deliver a more progressive tax system across all taxation within devolved powers.

Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement

The Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement (EFSBS) is an important statement of intent and commitment to equality analysis within the Budget process. Capacity and support must be provided at an early stage in the budget process to ensure that the EFSBS is resourced to provide quality, transparent analysis of the equality impacts through the budget in an accessible format.

Alongside this building understand and knowledge of the structural causes of inequalities must remain a priority for the Scottish Government. The Equalities Budget Advisory Group has provided a set of recommendations for Government to take to continue to improve how equality, gender and human rights budgeting is delivered in Scotland. These recommendations need support from leadership and capacity to deliver.

One additional Equality Impact Assessments has been published, for Public Sector Pay Policy, alongside the draft Budget. We’d like to see the publication of all related Equality Impact Assessments to allow for transparent scrutiny of the budget decision making process.

For more details on these themes and our pre-budget recommendations please see our Pre-Budget Briefing.