SWBG blog

Invest to prevent VAWG

Blog by Robyn Moffat-Wall, Training and Engagement Officer at Financially Included & Heather Williams, SWBG's Training Lead about women's experiences of public sector debt.

The theme for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence 2023 is “UNITE! Invest to prevent violence against women and girls”, set by UN Women who identify violence against women and girls as one of the most prevalent and pervasive human rights violations in the world.  

Violence Against Women and Girls is a cause and consequence of women’s inequality. To combat VAWG, it is essential that governments take action to address women’s wider inequality and understand how the decisions they take can help tackle VAWG or further entrap women and girls. Using gender budgeting approaches to analyse decisions can help ensure that we tackle inequality. 

One often overlooked form of violence against women and girls is economic abuse. Economic abuse is defined as “behaviours that control a woman’s ability to acquire, use, and maintain economic resources, thus threatening her economic security and potential for self-sufficiency” (Adams et al. 2008) and is recognised as a tactic of coercive control in the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.  

Cara’s Story: Cara (not her real name) was subject to economic abuse for a period of 20 years. Her abusive boyfriend had total control over their household finances and assured her everything was in order. When she fled his abuse, she discovered over £20,000 in Council Tax arrears which he’d hidden from her.  

This is an extreme example with a large amount in arrears, however this is a common theme among our clients, many of whom had been sending their contributions to their partners under the belief that these bills were being paid. 

Council Tax legislation considers couples living together in a household as “joint and severally liable”, holding both parties responsible for payment. There are no specific policies or procedures for debt collectors to consider situations like Cara’s, where council tax arrears have been accrued without her knowledge. Negotiations can be made about the pace of collection, but the full amount must be paid. 

Our clients struggling with council tax arrears tell us about how they know their abusive ex-partners are avoiding collection of this joint debt leaving them having to deal with this. Through our work we know that men are better able to avoid this debt. Women are more identifiable by authorities due to their ties to community through caring responsibilities. Women with children are more likely to be: 

• registered with an NHS GP, dentist, health visitor, nurseries’, schools.  

• dependent on social security (Engender, 2015).  

These systems require an up-to-date address, making women more visible to local authorities. 

From our clients' experience, debt collection methods around public debt has the effect of exacerbating the impacts of the economic abuse they have suffered.  

Public Sector Debt Management is an area that would benefit from applying a gender budgeting approach. 

To mark this year’s 16 Days of Activism, alongside the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, we are calling on the Scottish Government to work with local authorities across Scotland to invest to prevent violence against women and girls. As part of this investment, we’d like to see a commitment to the redevelopment of debt management strategies and incorporating trauma-informed policies to safeguard against economic abuse within their Council Tax collection processes.

Financially Included are a partnership project between GEMAP Scotland Ltd and the Glasgow Violence Against Women Partnership dedicated to tackling economic abuse and improving responses for survivors. We provide specialist advice to women who have experienced gender-based violence and tailored training for workers in Glasgow on best practice in supporting survivors. We have secured financial gains of £860,000, money that our client would not have accessed without our specialist support, of which debt write-offs amount to £35,802 granted by the private banking sector, where we’ve seen a growing understanding of economic abuse. We have partnered in a pilot with Surviving Economic Abuse who lead the way in improving understanding of economic abuse in the private sector. 

You can follow us via our social media channels: 

• X (Twitter) 
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

References:  

Adams, A. E., Sullivan, C. E., Bybee, D., & Greeson, M. R., 2008, “Development of the Scale of Economic Abuse”, Violence Against Women, 14 (5), pp. 563-588. [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1077801208315529]  

Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2018/5/contents/enacted  

Engender, 2016, Securing Women’s Futures: using Scotland’s new Social Security Powers to close the Gender Equality Gap, Engender. https://www.engender.org.uk/content/gendermattersinsocialsecurity  

Social Justice and Social Security Committee, 2022, Robbing Peter to pay Paul: Low income and the debt trap, The Scottish Parliament. Robbing Peter to pay Paul: Low income and the debt trap | Scottish Parliament 

UN Women 2023, Unite! Invest to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls, UN Women.  https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/unite/theme  

Reaction to the Autumn Statement

Our Training Lead, Heather Williams, reflects on yesterday's budget announcements.

With any budget or Autumn Statement it is often said “the devil is in the detail”, and this one is no different.

Yesterday, the Chancellor gave the illusion of helping those most hard pressed by the current cost-of-living crisis but in fact he gave with one hand and behind the scenes took with the other. At the start of his speech, he announced that benefits will increase by the September CPI rate, and that the triple lock for pensions will be maintained. At end of his speech, he announced a 2% cut in employee national insurance contributions and an increase in the national minimum wage to £11.44 an hour. For most women, he made these “apparent” increases in their income disappear as he maintained the freeze on the thresholds for tax and national insurance bands. According to the OBR, such freeze will see 4 million more people pay basic income tax and 3 million more move to the highest rate[1]. In addition, despite continuing higher rates of inflation, the Chancellor failed to maintain the £900 cost-of-living payment that many low-income households have been receiving.

The WBG estimate that lone parent mothers will benefit by £76 a year from the NIC changes compared to £248 for lone parent fathers and £417 for a dual parent household.[2] Given the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and higher inflation rates, this will be a real terms cut for many. Those on the lowest incomes will continue to struggle to manage basic household costs such as food and energy. 

During his speech, the chancellor quoted Nigel Lawson and said that borrowing is just deferred tax on future generations. We believe that yesterday's "tax giveaway" and failure to invest in public services or tackling climate change, is likely to mean women and girls will feel the economic pain in the near future as a result of needing to shore up already crumbling social infrastructure such as social care and childcare.

This prioritisation of tax cuts, which will benefit the wealthiest more over investment in public services, will impact on the Chancellor’s stated intention to grow the economy. This is because without addressing care and the level of unpaid care women do, economic growth will be hampered. 

The Chancellor’s statement was based on the premise that the UK is a high taxed nation. But while tax levels are at historically high levels, the UK is not a high tax country by other nations’ standards.[3] The illusion that we can provide good quality public services with low taxation needs to be shattered. Lowering taxation is not the only way to grow the economy and improve individuals’ standards of living. Public services, such as the NHS, high quality education, adult social care and childcare, can improve people's living standards, particularly women's, contributing to greater gender equality and much needed economic activity. 

The knock-on impact of these tax giveaways and the failure to invest in public services will have consequences for the Scottish Government and other devolved administrations. Difficult choices on spending will need to be made as it is likely inflationary pressures such as increased staffing and energy costs will wipe out any budget consequentials from the decisions announced yesterday. We hope that as these decisions are being taken, the Scottish Government uses an intersectional gendered lens to make sure that those most disadvantaged, particularly women, are protected at these already difficult times.

[1] https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-november-2023/

[2] https://wbg.org.uk/media/press-releases/wbgs-response-to-the-autumn-statement/

[3] https://wbg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Tax-Pre-Budget-Briefing-Autumn-2023-FINAL.pdf

What SWBG would like to see in the Autumn Statement

In times of insecurity and increasing levels of poverty and destitution (JRF 2023), comments about what may be included in the Chancellor’s statement leave little room to aspire to (Binns, 2023). While many issues remain devolved, public spending and tax issues as well as block grants, have a great impact on Scotland. This blog will detail what we’d like to see in the upcoming statement, especially in relation to advancing gender equality across the UK.

Social security

Social benefits are highly important to supplement women’s incomes, especially in households where the woman is the sole earner (Women’s Budget Group, 2022). As a result of rising costs, those on benefits have seen their incomes eroded. The cost of food is estimated by the ONS to be 30% higher in October 2023 than it was in October 2021; and while the headline rate of inflation may have dropped in October to 4.6%, the price of essential goods is not reducing (ONS, 2023). This is why, along with many other third sector organisations, we believe that the Chancellor must use this statement to increase all welfare payments in line with the September CPI inflation figure. Otherwise, those who rely on social security will be facing a further real terms cut in their income.

Current rates for Universal Credit mean that those who rely on this are living in poverty, unable to afford essential household costs and leaving people choosing between eating and heating. Our recent survey with Making Rights Real and Fa‘side Women and Girls Group found that 66% of those on Universal Credit struggled to manage food costs and 79% struggle with heating costs (2023) This is why we are backing the Essentials Guarantee campaign by the Trussell Trust and Joseph Rowntree Foundation which calls for a basic minimum floor of at least £120 for a single adult and £200 for a couple (Trussell Trust & JRF, 2023).

To achieve a ‘caring social security system’, we also call for:

• Removal of the benefit cap along with other measures such as the two-child limit and young parent penalty due to their adverse impact on women and poverty rates more broadly.
• Reverse the conditionality requirements for parents on Universal Credit. This would have a positive impact on single mothers who are already experiencing increasing insecurity as a result of a lack of affordable/accessible childcare and flexible employment (Gingerbread 2023; SWBG 2023);
• Review thresholds for means tested benefits such as Pension Credit;
• Invest in a comprehensive programme of benefits take up;
• Increase the level of financial support for asylum seekers, people with no recourse to public funds and people when gaining refugee status.
• Unfreeze the Local Housing Allowance and increase housing benefit rates, which is contributing to a record number of people living in temporary accommodation across the UK and is resulting in increased spending on costly temporary accommodation (Gecsoyler 2023; Gecsoyler 2023).

Taxation and Public Services

The UK Government has a duty to show they are using the maximum available resources to ensure that the rights of those in the UK, such as the ‘right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family' (United Nations, 2023), are not regressing. Given the numbers who are struggling to manage essential household costs we do not believe now is the time for the possible tax cuts being trailed in the press (Savage and King, 2023).

Alongside our sisters at the Women’s Budget Group, we call for the reform of the current tax system. Women are more likely to have lower levels of wealth due to caring responsibilities and rely more often on public services. With rising costs and cuts to these essential services, tax can provide a means to fund critical social infrastructure, improving women’s living standards. Find out more in the Women’s Budget Group Pre-Budget Briefing on Taxation and Gender: Autumn Statement 2023: Taxation and Gender - Womens Budget Group (wbg.org.uk)

Investment is needed in public services such as the NHS, social care and childcare services if the UK economy is going to grow. Tax cuts will only starve essential public services of much needed cash and will severely limit the government's ability to tackle NHS waiting times or to deliver on its childcare targets. All of which will negatively impact on the government's ability to grow the numbers of those in employment and ultimately, on the government’s ability to grow the economy.

We need to strengthen basic universal services via funding from tax reform. This is key to ensure that this decade of austerity doesn’t persist, damaging more livelihoods and further entrenching pre-existing structural inequalities like gender inequality.

Engage with us!

Heather, our Training Lead, will be on BBC Scotland tomorrow at 2:15pm. Tune in and hear SWBG’s response to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.

If you’d like to find out more about what the UK Government’s Autumn Budget Statement will mean for Scotland, and what we think the Scottish Government should address ahead of the upcoming Scottish Budget, sign up to our event here: The UK Autumn Budget - Potential opportunities & implications for Scotland Tickets, Wed 29 Nov 2023 at 14:00 | Eventbrite

References

Binns, K (2023) ‘What to expect from the Autumn Statement 2023’. Last accessed 20/11/23: What to expect from the Autumn Statement 2023 - Times Money Mentor (thetimes.co.uk)

Gecsoyler (2023) ‘”Morale is very low”: evicted tenant’s three months and counting in a London Travelodge’. Last accessed 21/11/23: ‘Morale is very low’: evicted tenant’s three months and counting in a London Travelodge | Homelessness | The Guardian

Gecsoyler (2023) ‘Number of households in temporary accommodation in England at highest level’. Last accessed 21/11/23: Number of households in temporary accommodation in England at highest level | Housing | The Guardian

Gingerbread (2023) ‘Changes to Universal Credit conditionality: Gingerbread’s response’. Last accessed 20/11/23: Changes to Universal Credit conditionality: Gingerbread's response | Gingerbread

Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2023) Destitution in the UK 2023. Last accessed 21/11/23: Destitution in the UK 2023 | JRF

Office for National Statistics (2023) ‘Cost of living insights: Food’. Last accessed 21/11/23: Cost of living insights - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Savage, M. & King, S (2023) ‘Millions of UK families using credit cards and loans to pay basic bills’. Last accessed 21/11/23: Millions of UK families using credit cards and loans to pay basic bills | Poverty | The Guardian

Scottish Women’s Budget Group (2023) Women’s Survey 2023: Experiences of rising costs across Scotland. Last accessed 20/11/23: SWBG-Cost-of-Living-report-proof-06.pdf

Trussell Trust and Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2023) ‘Guarantee our Essentials: reforming Universal Credit to ensure we can all afford the essentials in hard times’. Last accessed 21/11/23: https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/guarantee-our-essentials

United Nations (2023) ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’. Last accessed 20/11/23: Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations

Women’s Budget Group (2022) Who loses from benefit uprating changes? A gendered analysis. Last accessed 20/11/23: Benefit-uprate-briefing.pdf (wbg.org.uk)

Can we achieve equality, provide opportunity, and create community by freezing Council Tax? 

Our Coordinator, Carmen Martinez, reflects on the gendered implications of the First Minister's recent announcement about freezing Council Tax.

On Tuesday, the First Minister (FM) Humza Yousaf announced that council tax rates are to stay at current levels during the next financial year 2024/2025. As a feminist organisation focused on promoting women’s equality using gender budget analysis, we are concerned about the FM’s decision. Firstly, because there is plenty evidence pointing to the regressive nature of Council Tax overall, which is at odds with the Scottish Government’s commitments to progressive taxation. Secondly, freezing Council Tax will deprive Local Authorities of much needed revenue at a time when most are struggling to run public services, due to increasing costs and real term cuts to local government funding.

But… how does this affect women?

We know that taxation can play an important role in tackling inequalities. Regressive taxes place greater pressure on those on lower incomes… and, yes, women make up a higher proportion of those on lower incomes (SWBG, 2022; Close the Gap, 2023). According to data from the Office of National Statistics, households in the bottom quintile pay 4.6% of their income on Council Tax, whereas those in the top quintile pay just 1.4% of their income on this tax (ONS, 2020). If we are to achieve greater (gender) equality outcomes, we should be seeing stronger commitments to reform Council Tax into a progressive form of local taxation instead of freezing Council Tax rates. What’s more, Council Tax reform could deliver more revenue[1] to fund local public services of which women depend most. This leads nicely on to my next point, which is about the implications that shrinking local budgets have for women’s equality.  

Local authorities play a key role as service providers which benefit women hugely, such as Early Learning and Childcare provision, social care services and others. Funding these services is therefore crucial from a gender equality perspective. Yet, analysis by Audit Scotland has highlighted that revenue funding for local government has not kept pace with other parts of Scottish Government revenue spending. COSLA analysis of last year's budget indicates that there has been a £71 million cash increase once all national level government commitments are covered (COSLA, 2022). With high inflation rates, increased costs of energy and fuel, increasing demand on some services and higher than anticipated pay rises in 2022/23, this level of cash increase means most local authorities are still struggling to cover costs and have sought to make savings within the 2023/24 budget (Audit Scotland, 2023). Past experiences of ‘public savings’ have taught us that it is usually women picking up the slack. For example, research by the Urban Big Data Centre with North Lanarkshire revealed that austerity cuts to environmental services were felt most by women living in the most deprived neighbourhoods. Due to a decrease in provision, women ended up making most street cleansing requests, contributing to their invisible ‘third shift’, instead of the council scheduling routinely services as had previously been the case.  (UBDC, 2022). By freezing council tax next year, it is unclear how Local Authorities will be able to properly fund some key public services and social infrastructure (such as care and childcare) of which women rely on most unless this commitment is fully funded by the Scottish Government. It is even more unclear how the Scottish Government can justify this measure from a gender equality perspective.

It is also worth noting the importance of local governments as a source of women's paid employment. According to figures from the Women’s Budget Group (2020), 78% of council employees are women. As already discussed, freezing Council Tax rates will only create more problems for Local Authorities trying to balance their budgets. However, part of this balancing act includes reviewing and negotiating pay offers for council workers. By restricting Local Authorities’ ability to increase their revenue, it is hard to see how any new pay offers will reach a level deemed fair, particularly when considering the challenges brought up by the cost-of-living crisis.

Ensuring implementation of policy objectives.

In light of the above evidence, we would urge the FM to reconsider whether freezing council tax rates is the answer to the problems created by the cost-of-living crisis. It is time to build cross-party consensus around Council Tax. If the Scottish Government is to deliver on the equality, opportunity and community missions, we need to see a fair approach to local budgets with financial settlements that allow for the continuation of key public services for women while guaranteeing fair pay for local government workers. We hope to see these calls reflected on the upcoming Scottish Budget 2024/2025.

References

Audit Scotland (2023) ‘Local government in Scotland. Overview 2023’. Last accessed 18/10/2023: Local government in Scotland: Overview 2023 (audit-scotland.gov.uk)

Close the Gap (2023) ‘Scotland’s gender pay gap continues to fluctuate as women’s labour market inequalities remain unchallenged’. Last accessed 18/10/2023: Close the Gap | Blog | Scotland’s gender pay gap continues to fluctuate as women’s labour market inequalities remain unchallenged.

COSLA (2022) ‘Local Government Settlement 2023/2024. #BUDGETREALITY’. Last accessed: 18/10/2023 Budget-Reality-23-24-UPDATE.pdf (cosla.gov.uk)

Office for National Statistics (2020) ‘Taxes as a percentage of gross income, disposable income and expenditure for all individuals by quintile groups Scotland 2018-2019'. Last accessed: 18/10/2023 Taxes as a percentage of gross income, disposable income and expenditure for all individuals by quintile groups, Scotland: 2018 to 2019 - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Scottish Women's Budget Group (2022) ‘Women, Work and Wealth in Scotland's changing economy 2022’. Last accessed: 18/10/2023 Women-Work-Wealth-in-a-changing-economy-report.pdf (swbg.org.uk)

Urban Big Data Centre (2022) ‘Using council data to reveal the invisible ‘third shift’ done by women from poorer neighbourhoods’. Last accessed 18/10/2023: Using council data to reveal the invisible ‘third shift’ done by women from poorer neighbourhoods | Urban Big Data Centre (ubdc.ac.uk)

Women’s Budget Group (2020). ‘Local government and Gender’. Last accessed 18/10/2023: final-local-gov-2020.pdf (wbg.org.uk)

[1] For more information on Council Tax reform options, check out this joint briefing created alongside IPPR Scotland, Oxfam Scotland, Poverty Alliance, CPAG in Scotland, One Parent Families Scotland, and the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Scotland.