Member

In the interests of brevity, I shall not repeat everything that I said then but, to think briefly about other protected characteristics, it is worth focusing on the fact that part-time and casual workers, who are particularly influenced by the national insurance increase, are more likely to be from minoritised communities. If we look at the intersectional impacts, black women, for example, are 1.2 times more likely to be on low pay than black men, and 1.7 times more likely to be on low pay than white men. If we look at the discrimination and unequal outcomes for disabled people, they are much worse; we can take, for example, the employment rate of 54.2% in December 2023 for disabled people, which compares with an employment rate for non-disabled people of 82%. We have literally no information from the Government, as far as I am aware, on that crucial figure that is so important to people’s well-being. Indeed, in the Government’s own terms, they are very concerned about getting more people into work. What impact will these changes have? We do not have the assessment. Amendment 68 aims to get a review on that basis.