Contribution
My Lords, this first Budget from a woman has some good news for women, as we have already heard, especially the investment in our much-depleted public services—though sadly not nearly enough in social care—the very welcome improvements to carer’s allowance and the increase in the national living wage. But, important as it is, a living wage has less effect on poverty than is often assumed. Women are the main shock absorbers of poverty, which has grown so much worse under the Conservatives. Yet it was mentioned only once in the Budget speech and there has been considerable disappointment among charities that the Budget did not promise more.
That is not to discount the positives. There is the new fair debt repayment rate for universal credit, although the money will still have to be repaid eventually and the five-week waiting period which accounts for many of those debts must be tackled. There is the extension of the household support fund, although there is no mention of work on a longer-term plan for local crisis support, and additional investment in free breakfasts, but nothing on free school meals.
We are told that these represent downpayments on the plan to drive down poverty being drawn up by the child poverty task force, whose work I warmly applaud. After 14 years of slash and burn policies, which have, according to CPAG—of which I am president—cut £50 billion a year from social security, experts agree that social security has to be central to such a plan. To quote Brian, a benefit claimant from the Changing Realities project, these
“positive steps … do not tackle the core issues of inadequacy within our social security system”.
Of course, rebuilding social security cannot be done overnight. But surely it was possible to address now the two interrelated key drivers of child poverty, including deep poverty—the two-child limit and the benefit cap—without awaiting the full strategy. There was not even a commitment to the inflation proofing of the cap to prevent it hitting harder and trapping more struggling families whenever benefits are uprated. Seven out of 10 of those caught are lone parents, mainly women. As the Resolution Foundation warns,
“leaving the two-child limit and the benefit cap intact even for the next five months prolongs the burden on low-income families … and intensifies the effect as new families are affected”.
And what a burden it is for mothers struggling daily to meet their children’s needs. The foundation estimates that 63,000 more children will be hit by the two-child limit by April, and there is no hint that it will even be scrapped then. That is 109 a day, according to CPAG. The continued freeze in the local housing allowance is also disappointing, given the extent to which private sector rents are contributing to high poverty levels. Instead of hope of future repair of the shredded social security system, those claiming disability and sickness-related benefits face possible further cuts, which is causing considerable anxiety. Yet, according to the Women’s Budget Group—of which I am a member and which has already been mentioned—disabled women are among those who have been hit hardest by Tory cuts.
The Chancellor is rightly asking those with the broadest shoulders—largely men—to forego some of their tax privileges, but many argue that she could have gone further and released the money needed to take more decisive action on poverty and inequality, in the interests of women and children. Without it, as Trussell warns, we will not end what the manifesto described as the “moral scar” of mass dependence on food banks. The case for transformative action is not only moral but economic, as it would bring cash into deprived communities and reduce pressure on services, and it is political, given inequality’s role in fuelling right-wing populism.
To conclude, in the Budget debate, the Work and Pensions Secretary promised a
“bold, ambitious, cross-Government strategy to tackle child poverty”
next spring, but that
“we will not wait to act, particularly for those facing the deepest poverty”.—[Official Report, Commons, 4/11/24; col. 68.]
These are encouraging words. All I ask is that we act more resolutely now.