How successful have Government strategies been in reducing wealth inequalities?

1. How successful have Government strategies been in reducing wealth inequalities?

2. The unemployed • Those on a low income • Children • Parents • The Elderly

3. Unemployment The introduction of the New Deal programmes, Tax Credits and the National Minimum Wage encouraged people to seek employment as there was a greater financial incentive. Unemployment fell to below 5% following the introduction of these measures, however, the recession (outwith Government control?) has lead to this increasing to 8%.

4. Low Pay National Minimum Wage Rates from 1 October 2010: • From 1 October 2011 new rates and age bands will apply. • £6.08 - the rate for workers aged 21 and over • £4.98 - the 18-20 rate • £3.68 - the 16-17 rate Why are women more likely to benefit from NMW?

5. Nearly one million workers benefitted when the national minimum wage (NMW) increased to £5.80 per hour in October 2009. This will continue to be the case when it increases further to £6.08 (21+) in October 2011. • Two in three of the 950,000 beneficiaries in 2009 were women, reinforcing the NMW's positive role in narrowing the gender pay gap.

6. When you compare the findings from the JRF above, it’s quite clear that the NMW still falls worryingly short of the amount required. How short?

7. What does this tell us about child poverty?

8. The UK still has a far higher rate of people in low-income households than most European countries.

9. VAT will rise from 17.5% to 20% from 4th January 2010 There has already been criticism, with deputy leader of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman, saying raising VAT "punished the poorest most" meaning that pensioners, for example, "had less money in their purses". What type of tax is VAT?

10. People not claiming benefits? About £16bn in income-related benefits and tax credits goes unclaimed in the UK in a year. • our in five low-paid workers without children missed out on tax credits worth at least £38 a week • Up to half of all working households do not claim housing benefit worth an average of £37.60 a week • An average of £13 a week in council tax benefit is not being claimed by up to three million households • Up to 1.7 million pensioners are missing out on an average of £31 in pension credit payments. How can these benefits be considered truly effective when so many people are not taking advantage of them?? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8494105.stm

11. Income gap narrows across the UK The income gap for people in different nations of the UK has narrowed over a decade, official figures show. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8597384.stm

12. Is the Rich/Poor Gap Narrowing? The size of the inequality is fallng faster in Britain than the 30 other richest countries. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation & Development

13. Child Poverty Over 1 million less children are living in poverty than in 1997. • Since 1999, when the current Government pledged to end child poverty, 500,000 children have been lifted out of poverty. Tax Credits have enabled 40% of lone mothers to escape poverty. However, the huge cost of child care can result in some lone parents being worse off working. (See next Slide)

14. According to the Daycare Trust, a typical full-time nursery place for a child under two in England now costs £167 a week, or £8,684 a year. However, the highest costs in the country see parents paying as much as £400 a week, the equivalent of £20,800 a year. Prices are highest in London and the south-east, averaging between £172 and £226 a week. The lowest are in the Midlands and the north of England. The average weekly cost of a nursery place in Wales is now £146 a week, equivalent to £7,592 a year. In Scotland it is £158 a week, equivalent to £8,216 a year. Is this acceptable? http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/mar/26/affordable-childcare-family-finances

15. The number of children in working families taken out of low income by the money received from tax credits was 1.0 million in 2007/08.  This is 0.7 million higher than the 0.3 million taken out of low income by the predecessor to tax credits in 1998/99.

16. Tax credits have benefitted a huge number of people. However, this may be likely to change soon (see next slide)

17. 2010 Budget: Child tax credits cut and child benefit frozen However, the single-parent organisation Gingerbread said families with young children would soon feel the pain of the budget. Fiona Weir, chief executive, said: "A family having a second child could be over £1,200 worse off this year. These cuts will really hit families with young children hard." Support will be targetted at those on lower incomes. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/22/2010-budget-child-tax-credits-cut

18. Tax Credit Shake-Up 5.7million families will not be able to claim a penny of the credit from 2012, leaving just 1.3million of the country's poorest households benefiting from the payment. It means that families with one child would receive no tax credits once they earn above £23,275.

19. 4 million children are living in poverty in the UK (after housing costs) • The proportion of children living in poverty grew from 1 in 10 in 1979 to 1 in 3 in 1998. Today, 30 per cent of children in Britain are living in poverty. • The majority (59 per cent) of poor children live in a household where at least one adult works. • 40 per cent of poor children live in a household headed by a lone parent. The majority of poor children (57 per cent) live in a household headed by a couple.

20. However, • The child element in the tax credit system will rise by £150 above indexation, chancellor George Osborne has announced in his emergency budget today. • The rise will cost £2 billion, Mr Osborne declared, and said as a result there would be no increase in child poverty. • The chancellor said the measure was the coalition government's "commitment to low-income families". • Earlier Mr Osborne revealed child benefit would be frozen for three years, with tax credits cut for families with incomes over £40,000 a year.

21. Pensioner Poverty Research has shown that in 2007, 1 in 3 over 65s in the UK were living in poverty. Some countries with harsher winters in the EU have lower winter death rates amongst the elderly. 1 in 5 people aged 60 and over are skipping meals to save money on food, while two fifths are cutting back on socialising, electricity and gas.

22. Pensioner Poverty (continued) £2.5 billion in elderly benefits went unclaimed last year. Whose fault is that?

23. More winter help on way to poorest pensioners(March 2010) • Hundreds of thousands of the poorest pensioners should benefit from lower fuel bills this winter thanks to a deal announced today between the big six energy suppliers (British Gas, EDF Energy, EON, Npower, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy) and the Government. • As a result, up to 250,000 of the poorest pensioner households should see an £80 rebate off their electricity bills. • This deal will now deliver extra help of £80 to some of the poorest of pensioners over 70 and give them the reassurance they need as we come out of the coldest winter in decades.

24. Fuel Poverty The Government introduced a number of measures to try and address the number of people living in fuel poverty. This is when one tenth of a households income is spent on electricity and gas. The Government’s plan was to eradicate fuel poverty by 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/oct/21/households-fuel-poverty

25. Have they? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8594160.stm No! The Warm Front scheme offers between £1500 and £6000 towards new heating and insulation. It is available to those on low incomes and vulnerable groups. The numbers in fuel poverty continue to increase and they continue to fail to meet their targets.

26. However, This statistic shows that whilst most groups within society are getting richer, the poorest group have got poorer. Who’s really getting richer?

27. Have Gender Inequalities Improved?

28. Legislation • A significant amount of legislation has been introduced in order to address gender inequalities. • Equal Pay Act • Sex Discrimination Act • Equality Act 2010 Therefore, it has been acknowledged as an issue. However, does it go far enough and has it worked?

29. Flexible Working Patterns Employees now have the opportunity to apply for either, reduced hours, flexi-time, shift-work, working at home and working same hours over less days. However, they usually have to have been with the company for a minimum period of time eg 26 weeks and be a full-time carer.

30. Women in Positions of Power Women are now far more likely to occupy positions of power than they ever have. For example, Michelle Mone (Ultimo) and Karen Brady (Managing Director at Birmingham City at the age of 23). http://money.uk.msn.com/women-and-money/photos.aspx?cp-documentid=150854680

31. National Minimum Wage Women benefit from the NMW far more than men as they are more likely to occupy the low paid, low status jobs. When the NMW increased in 2007, of the 1 million people who benefitted, 2/3 were women.

32. Role Models There are a number of highly successful women who’ve become role models for many others. This would not have been the case in the past. For example, Eilish Angiolini became the Lord Advocate in 2006 – the first woman to occupy such a position. Law is significantly dominated by men.

33. Equality Act 2010 This, in theory, should go some way towards addressing gender imbalances in terms of pay and job status/type within organisations. Positive Action could also work in favour of women.

34. Education Females are now outperforming boys in school and excelling at University too. This pattern looks likely to continue.

35. Child Support Agency Women are far more likely to benefit from this as they are more likely to be lone parents. This will have a significant impact on their income, which would not have been the case in the past.

36. Pay Gap Men still earn more than women and are more likely to occupy the best paying jobs. They are also more likely to work full-time, which is much better paid than part-time.

37. National Minimum Wage This is still well below the levels suggested by the JRF (£7 per hour at least) and would fall below the £14,400 suggested by the HBAI for a single person. What groups are more likely to take advantage of the NMW?

38. Lack of Representation in Politics and ‘top jobs’ Only 45 of the 129 MSPs in the Scottish Parliament are female. Only 143 of the 650 MPs in the UK Parliament are female. Very few women occupy positions of power within organisations. • In the top 100 public companies, women made up 12.6% of executive directors, little changed from last year's 12.2%. • Taking into account all 600 companies quoted on the London stock exchange, the figure falls to just 5%. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10648355

39. Type of Employment The low paid, low status jobs tend to be dominated by women (the 4Cs – catering, cleaning, cash registers and caring). Often women are considered unemployed but are still fulfilling a role (unpaid) such as bringing up children and caring for relatives.

40. Child Support Agency The charity Gingerbread, which supports single parent families, has criticised the CSA help for failing to keep up with its targets for collecting child maintenance payments owed to households in the UK. The service set itself an aim of collecting one hundred and seventy million pounds owed to dependants within Britain. However, during 2009/10 the organisation only managed to recoup one hundred and forty seven million pounds.

41. Have race inequalities improved?

42. Legislation • Race Relations Act 1965 and 1976 • EHRC • Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 • The One Scotland Campaign • One Scotland Many Cultures

43. One Scotland Campaign Acknowledgement that Scotland does need to address race inequalities and discrimination. This could be trying to change stereotypes and cultural misconceptions through ‘Show Racism The Red Card’ and ‘One Scotland Many Cultures’.

44. Role Models

45. National Minimum Wage

46. Education In 2007-08, 16% of students from the UK studying for degrees were from a black, Asian or ethnic minority background. This compared to 14.2% of the 18-24-year-old age group as a whole. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8493894.stm

47. Islamophobia There’s evidence that there is an element of anti-Islamic feeling within Scotland and the UK. Attacks on Mosques have coincided with terrorist attacks/plots in the UK and throughout the world. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/imam-attacked-as-antimuslim-violence-grows-461483.html http://news.stv.tv/scotland/west-central/114841-asian-man-in-racist-knife-attack/

48. Poverty Evidence previously gathered shows that BMEs are far more likely to live in poverty than Whites. Therefore, have Government policies really worked?

49. Discrimination Racism is still stopping Britain's ethnic minorities from entering the best-paid professions despite them having a stronger work ethic and greater drive than white Britons. The report, funded by the government and compiled by charity Business in the Community, whose president is Prince Charles, says too many ethnic minority Britons feel prestige jobs in the law, banking, media and politics are closed to them. For the study, 1,500 people from all ethnic backgrounds were interviewed. Asked which professions were seen as racist, nearly half of all respondents saw the police as prejudiced, rising to 72% for Afro-Caribbeans. The armed forces were seen as prejudiced by 36%, politics by 30%, and law by 16%. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/15/racism-britons-best-paid-professions http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/7827779/Blatant-racism-puts-one-in-four-ethnic-minorities-off-top-careers.html

50. Education Although there’s clear evidence that ethnic minorities do less well than Whites (see previous slides) those who do manage to get Degrees still find it more difficult to get employment. • The report by campaign group Race for Opportunity, shows that 56.3% of ethnic minority students who graduated in 2007-08 found work within a year, compared with 66% of white students. • This is despite the fact that 16% of UK university students were from an ethnic minority background in 2007-08 - up from 8.3% in 1995-96. http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2010/02/03/53943/ethnic-minority-university-graduates-still-find-it-harder-to-find-jobs-than-white-counterparts.html