[Anarchafeminists] Why benefits cuts are a feminist issue and protest in Newcastle

[Helen D]

Benefit cuts are a feminist issue because:

	* Benefits on average make up one fifth of womens income compared to one tenth 
of mens.

	* Many more women than men are single parents 

	* Many more women than men are carers of sick, elderly or disabled people 
(whose income and workload is affected not only by carers allowance but also by 
the disability benefits and social care the person they care for recieves).
	* The cuts and reforms to many benefits therefore disproportionately affect 
women.
	* Women and men do not recieve equal pay: even when only full-time work is 
considered, the  median average pay for men is 10.2% higher than women.

	* Women are more likely to work part time than men - because they are more 
likely to have childcare or caring responsibilities.  The part-time gender 
pay-gap, whether compared as an hourly rate or as weekly gross income is much 
larger than for full-time workers.
	* Women therefore recieve more income-related in-work benefits, such as housing 
benefit, tax credits, council tax benefit.  They are therefore more affected 
than men by cuts to these benefits.  A million more women claim Housing Benefit 
than men, and many of these will be lone parents.

	* Changing the benefits system will not change the gender disparity between 
caring roles.
	* Income-related benefits for single parents and carers and universal benefits 
such as child benefit were successfully fought for by feminists.  They are a 
tiny bit of financial recognition for the caring role and what  was 
traditionally seen as  "womens work" (and is still disproportionatly done by 
women) ie childcare, caring, housework.  These benefits are now being cut.

	* Single parents will be forced onto Jobseekers Allowance to look for work when 
their child is 5.  Punitive measures such as reducing housing benefits by 10% 
after 1 year on Jobseekers Allowance and sanctions still apply to parents!
	* Politicians - Labour, Tory, and LibDem - have called single parents and 
carers "workless" - as if they didn't do some of the toughest jobs there are.

	* Forcing single mothers into employment does not automatically liberate them - 
low paid work with bad conditions followed by a double shift of caring 
responsibilities and housework is not empowering.  That is not to say that no 
mother find work empowering, useful, enjoyable, or financially rewarding, but 
many don't.

	* Every parent should be able to decide when or if  they work - children may 
need different amounts of attention at different times, and parents are the best 
judge as to what they can cope with and how much they find work useful, 
empowering, enjoyable, or financially rewarding.

	* Cuts to benefits, social care, and services, mean more work and stress for 
carers and parents - work and stress which will disproportionatly fall on women.

	* Cuts to tax credits could make it uneconomical for some partnered mothers who 
want to have jobs to continue to work.

	* Many of the illnesses that women are more likely to suffer from than men - 
such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, fibromalgia, and bipolar disorder - are 
"invisible disabilities" that forms and medicals for disability benefits and 
employment and support allowance are often not set up to deal with.
	* More women than men are employed in the public sector - and two thirds more 
women than men are expected to lose their jobs because  of the public spending 
cuts.  There are therefore likely to be more women signing on soon.
	* Maternity Grants - which are being cut - only affect pregnant women.

	* These cuts and reforms to welfare and housing benefits will therefore lead to 
increased poverty, stress, homelessness, debt, and unpaid work to many women - 
especially those who are already in the greatest poverty.


Protest and Picnic Against Benefit Cuts and Poverty Pimps
11am Monday 24thJanuary 2011
at A4e Newcastle (meet at Manors Metro)

Called by Tyneside Claimants Union
http://tynesideclaimantsunion.wordpress.com/
tynesideclaimantsunion at googlemail.com
Part of the National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts  
http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/
notowelfarecuts at yahoo.co.uk  

Everyone welcome, whether you are a benefit claimant yourself, or want to give 
your solidarity: please tell your friends.
Bring: banners and placards, music, drums and whistles, food to share, and your 
ideas, enthusiasm and solidarity.

We say
NO
- TO CUTS TO WELFARE AND HOUSING BENEFITS
- 	TO COMPULSORY WORK FOR BENEFITS
- 	TO “THE WORK PROGRAMME”
- TO BENEFITS SANCTIONS
- TO 	CASUALISATION AND ATTACKS ON WORKERS' RIGHTS
- TO POVERTY PIMPS 	LIKE A4E AND WORKING LINKS 

 
After a  certain amount of time signing on, unemployed people are forced to 
attend private companies like A4e and Working Links as part of the “New Deal”.  
This is supposed to help the unemployed find work, but many unemployed people 
who have been forced to go to these companies complain of a total lack of any 
useful courses, training or facilities and denounce the disrespectful and 
bullying way these companies treat unemployed people.  The ConDems are replacing 
“New Deal with “the Work Programme”, which will mean that more benefits 
claimants (including disabled people in the  work-related-activity group of ESA, 
and single parents with children as  young as 5 (its now 7)) will be forced to 
attend these companies and more of us will be made to work for our benefits  
(i.e. for as little as £1.27 an hour).  


Benefit Cuts and Poverty Pimps
The government wants to make massive cuts to the benefits system, for example 
forcing many disabled people off Employment Support Allowance/Incapacity 
Benefit, abolishing Education Maintenance Allowance and making 20% cuts to 
Disability Living Allowance. According to the Chartered Institute of Housing, ¾ 
million people across the UK will lose their homes as a result of the cuts to 
housing benefit alone. We can't let them get away with this!  


Emma Harrison, the owner of A4E, lives very well off benefits.  She has a £40m 
fortune and a 100 acre country estate.  Yet people forced to attend A4e in 
Newcastle and Gateshead complain  that there aren't enough computers or even 
pens and that there is a culture of disrespect and bullying in the company.  
Whilst millions of  people face a spiral into poverty, debt, stress, and 
homelessness,the gravy train is being extended for poverty pimps like A4e and 
Working Links which seek to profit from the misery of others.

Don't get fooled by divide and rule tactics
People who are unemployed for whatever reason, either through ill health, or the  
recession, or because they are caring for a child or disabled person, are not 
scroungers, but human beings with real needs for food, housing and health! Only 
1 in 10 housing benefit claimants is unemployed – most have low paid jobs.  Many 
people with jobs also rely on benefits like tax credits, child benefit, and 
council tax benefit to make ends meet.  Carers and single parents do the 
toughest – unpaid – jobs there are!  


The “Work Programme” and the benefit cuts are not only an attack on the 
unemployed and other claimants, they are an attack on workers in jobs. Making 
people work for their benefits won't reduce poverty or improve life chances.  
But it will allow employers to bypass the minimum wage. If the government get 
their way the current 4 week compulsory work placements will become much longer.  
We all have to organise to stop workfare and benefit cuts.


Let's get together to take some real action to stop these injustices!
Come along to this demonstration, contact Tyneside Claimants Union.  
Isolated we can be bullied but together we can turn the tables !



      
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