SWBG blog

Reflecting on Challenge Poverty Week 2024

Our Policy and Engagement Lead, Carmen Martinez, reflects on this year’s Challenge Poverty Week.

Today marks the end of Challenge Poverty Week 2024, the Poverty Alliance’s annual event aimed at highlighting the ‘injustice of poverty in wealthy Scotland’. It is a time to pause and reflect on the work currently ongoing to tackle poverty in the country. For us reflecting on this week means drawing attention to women’s experiences of inequality and poverty, which our Women’s Survey 2024 describes in detail.

This report, published ahead of Challenge Poverty Week, provides a clear picture of how the recent inflationary period has impacted women’s economic resilience in Scotland. Amongst the different findings captured in the report, two stood out to us:

• 69% of the total 1026 women who took the survey feel financially worse off compared to the same time last year;
• 55% of the 992 women responding to questions relating to debt told us they have some type of debt, and 35% said they have no savings[1].

But the cost-of-living crisis is not affecting women equally. Disabled women, single mothers and women from minority ethnic communities are struggling with energy bills and food costs in greater numbers, and so are those with an annual household income of less than £20k per year (46% of which are single households without children)[2].

While inflationary pressures are the main reason why women find themselves in an ever more precarious economic position, a closer look at the reasons why they feel financially worse off highlights the gendered aspects of this crisis. Women told us about the impact Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) had on them, with some respondents stating how SMP’s low rate at times made it impossible to meet overall household costs. Women also pointed to the cost of childcare as a barrier to their ability to increase paid work and/or as a drain to their finances. Other reasons for feeling worse off include lack of savings, or savings being used up, stagnating wages or pay increases not keeping in line with inflation, fixed rate mortgage deals ending, wage increases reducing Universal Credit (UC), moving to UC from legacy benefits, helping adult children and health impacting on their ability to work. These reasons might also be applicable to men, particularly marginalised men, however, women’s likelihood to work part time and/or to work in low-paid jobs or to report a disability increases the risk of entrenching gender inequalities.

The question is, where does this end? We need to see progress towards a more caring economy which supports and values women. Yet our joint report with The Young Women’s Movement (YWM) further highlights the challenge of making this caring economy a reality. On the contrary, this research is a stark reminder of how structural gender inequality disadvantages women early in their lives. Statistics show that young women on average earn £5,000 less per year in comparison with young men of their age, which makes it difficult for young women to become financially resilient in times of crisis[3]:

“I’ve realised that I need to retrain in a new career if I ever want to own a house and be more financially independent. I’m currently a youth worker, an industry predominantly worked in by women. Typical ‘women’s roles’ pay very little, despite being essential work”[4].

The young women who engaged with us shared a sense of hopelessness about their future, their ability to live alone, to afford a home and/or to plan for a family.

The findings of both surveys speak about an economy that does not support young people, and women particularly. Additionally, these findings should serve as a warning of the disadvantages and costs that an economy divorced of all social purpose can create. If we want to see an end to poverty in Scotland, we need to transform our economy so it can create thriving communities. With work on next year’s budget underway, it is a necessary time to keep reflecting on these issues and think about how budgetary decisions can better work for women.

Notes

Both reports make specific recommendations for the UK and the Scottish Governments as well as for Local Authorities. You can find these in full here:

• The Scottish Women’s Budget Group, “Women’s Survey 2024. Navigating increasing costs and debt”.
• The Young Women’s Movement and the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, “I am just keeping my head above water. Young women’s experiences of the cost-of-living crisis in Scotland”.

[1]  https://www.swbg.org.uk/content/publications/SWBG-Womens-Survey-2024-FINAL.pdf

[2] https://www.swbg.org.uk/content/publications/SWBG-Womens-Survey-2024-FINAL.pdf

[3] https://www.swbg.org.uk/content/publications/SWBG-YWM-Cost-of-Living-Young-Women-report.pdf

[4] https://www.swbg.org.uk/content/publications/SWBG-YWM-Cost-of-Living-Young-Women-report.pdf