The Government has introduced a number of
practical measures to enhance the position of women:
Help looking after children …
-
Since 1997, the number of registered childcare
places has more than doubled to
1.28 million.
-
By April 2008, nearly 3,000 Sure Start Children’s Centres
had been established, providing services to over 2.2 million young
children and their families.
-
All three and four year olds are now guaranteed 12.5 hours
of free early education for 38 weeks per year for up to two years
before reaching compulsory school age (the term following their fifth
birthday), rising to 15 hours by 2010, with a longer term goal of 20
hours.
-
The Government’s goals are that by 2010 there will be
a Sure Start Children’s Centre for every community (3,500 in all);
that every school will
offer access to a core range of extended services between 8am and 6pm; and all three
and four year olds will be able to access 15 hours of free early education per
week.
Help with family finances …
-
Working families have been provided with up to 80 per cent of their childcare costs
through the tax credit system.
-
At April
2008, over 450,000 lower and middle income families were benefiting
from the childcare element of Working Tax Credit. This helps families
with children on less than £58,000 a year by covering up to 80 per
cent of the cost of childcare (providing up to a maximum of £140 a
week for one child and £240 a week for two or more children)
-
The level of maternity pay has more
than doubled to £117.18 a week.
-
Announced an increase in the first child rate of Child Benefit to £20 per week from
April 2009
-
Announced an uplift in the
child element of the Child Tax Credit by £50 a year above earnings
indexation from April 2009 to concentrate help on low to middle income
families
In the workplace …
-
Introducing the National Minimum Wage played a part
in narrowing the pay gap. It currently stands at £5.52 per hour,
and will increase to £5.73 per hour in October 2008. The minimum wage has had a major
impact, substantially reducing the pay gap at the very bottom of the
earnings distribution, according to the Low Pay Commission.
-
The Government implemented the recommendations of the Women
and Work Commission’s report to reduce the gender pay gap. Some of these were the
development of an equality
check tool for employers, funding trade union equality reps to promote
flexible working, funding projects to improve the
availability of high quality part-time work opportunities, and the
creation of a group of Exemplar Employers. The employers encourage
flexible working, attempt to overcome occupational segregation, and
give comprehensive training and development plans for employees and
women returning to work.
-
Help has been provided
for lone parents to move into work by rolling out ‘In Work Credit‘ and the
‘In Work Emergency Discretion Fund’, and
giving support from Personal Advisers for the first six months in work.
-
£12.5 million has been invested in predominantly women-led businesses in order
to encourage more women entrepreneurs.
Help balancing work and family responsibilities …
Flexible
working
-
Since April 2003, employees who have children with disabilities, or children under the
age of six, have had the right to ask for flexible working arrangements.
Almost a quarter of parents with children under that age have taken up
the right.
-
Over 6 million employees have the right to request flexible working (3.6m parents
with young and disabled children and 2.65m carers of adults). 56% of employees (14 million employees) work flexibly, or have done so
within the last 12 months.
-
From April 2007, carers of adults have also been given the right to ask for flexible working arrangements.
-
In May 2008, recommendations made by Sainsbury’s Human
Resources Director Imelda Walsh extended the right to request flexible
working to parents of children up to the age of 16. This
means an extra 4.5 million parents will gain the right to request
flexible working.
Improved Pay and Rights for Parents
-
Working mothers’ Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay
and Maternity Allowance has increased from 26 weeks to 39 weeks from
April 2007.
-
The Government
has also increased the flat rate for maternity pay, up from £55.70 in 1997 to £117.18
a week in 2008.
-
The Government aims by the end of this Parliament to give a new
right to fathers to take up to 26 weeks Additional Paternity Leave before
their child’s first birthday, to allow mothers to return to work early should they
wish to.
-
The Government announced their intention to
introduce Additional Paternity Leave and Pay alongside the extension
of Statutory Maternity Pay to 12 months.
-
Part-time workers and people on fixed term contracts now have the
same rights as people in full-time work.
In public life …
After the last election, a record number of women entered Parliament.
There are currently 125 women in the House of Commons and 147 in the
House of Lords. Women make up 29.3% of councillors in England
and hold 34.4 per cent of public appointments overall, up from 32% in 1997.
The Government has taken a number of measures to boost the number of
women participating in public life, including:
-
Created a new Commission, led by Dame Jane Roberts, to increase the
diversity of Local Government Councillors. The Commission
reported on 10 December 2007;
-
Launched the "Women Take Part" campaign which is looking at how to
help women from underrepresented groups become active in local
decision making.
-
Established a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Women
Councillor’s Taskforce in May 2008 to take practical action to
increase the numbers of councillors from these communities.
-
Published research to better understand the routes Black,
Asian and Minority Ethnic women take into, through and out of
decision-making.
In the
home
On average domestic violence claims the lives of two women a week and
the Government has introduced a range of measures to tackle this
appalling crime.
Since then, the Government has:
-
Introduced the Domestic Violent Crime and Victims
Act 2004, the biggest overhaul of domestic violence for 30 years;
-
Committed
to implement section 9 of the Act this summer, which will place the
establishment and conduct of Domestic Homicide Reviews on a
statutory footing.
-
Produced
cross-Government national action plans on domestic violence, human
trafficking and sexual violence and abuse;
-
Created the Forced Marriage Unit in 2005, which provides assistance to approximately
400 victims and potential victims of forced marriage a year;
-
Signed the UK up to the European Convention Against Human Trafficking, which includes a
measure to give victims a 30 day temporary residence permit while
they recuperate and help the police with their investigations;
-
Introduced a Specialist Domestic Violence Courts programme. Since April
2007 there are 64 Specialist Domestic Violence Courts across England
and Wales - one in every region;
-
Provided Local Authorities with the resources to
develop a range of accommodation options for victims of domestic
violence.
Thanks to these measures there was a 59% decrease
in the number of incidents of domestic violence between 1995 and
2006/7. Similarly, homicides committed by partners/ex-partners
have fallen from 146 in 2004-05 to
110 in 2006-7 (83 women and 27 men).
Health and well-being …
-
Between 1997 and 2005 the death rate from breast cancer fell by over
8% for under 75 year olds.
-
Over 99% of patients with suspected cancer are now seen by a
specialist within 2 weeks of being referred by their GP, compared to
63% in 1997.
-
In 2006 we launched a new sexual health campaign to normalise condom
use and tackle sexually transmitted infections.
-
Allocated £26.8m new funding in 2008/9 to improve access to a full
range of contraception.
-
Due to investment in services the under-18 conception rate is at its
lowest for over 20 years.
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In retirement …
-
Nearly two-thirds of the poorest
pensioners are women.
-
85% of men reaching state pension age
today are entitled to a full basic state pension, compared with just
35% of women.
-
To tackle pensioner poverty, the Government has
introduced Pension Credit, which together with other measures
introduced since 1997 has helped to lift more than one million
pensioners - around two-thirds of them women - out of
absolute poverty.
-
The Government announced an
additional one-off payment of £100 for people over 80 and £50 for
people over 60 in addition to the existing payment of £300 for those
over 80 and £200 for the over 60s in 2008/9. This will benefit around 9 million
households. These households
contain around 12 million people, around 55% of whom are women.
The Pensions Act 2007 introduced changes that will help women and carers to build up a decent income in retirement.
The Government estimates that:
-
In 2010, around three quarters of women
reaching State Pension Age will be entitled to a full Basic State
Pension compared to around 50% without the changes made by the Act.
-
As a result of reform around 1 million more
people will accrue State Second Pension from 2010 and approximately
90% of them will be women.
-
In 2025 over 90% of women and men reaching
State Pension age will be entitled to a full Basic State Pension.
Almost half a million extra women over State Pension Age will be
entitled to a full Basic State Pension in 2025.
The reforms in the Pensions Act include:
-
Reducing the number of qualifying years needed for a full Basic
State Pension to 30 years for both women and men (from 39 years for
women and 44 years for men currently);
-
Abolishing the initial contributions to the Basic State Pension so
that people will be able to build entitlement through credits or
paid contributions and those with very few qualifying years will be
able to get at least some Basic State Pension;
-
Replacing the system of Home Responsibilities Protection with new
weekly National Insurance credits which will give entitlement to
both the Basic State Pension and the State Second Pension, for
people who:
-
Are getting Child Benefit for a child up to 12;
-
Are approved foster carers;
-
Are caring for severely disabled people for at least 20 hours a
week;
-
Converting past years of Home Responsibilities Protection that have
been built up into qualifying years of credits.
The Government has guaranteed that increases in the basic State
Pension
will be in line with the Retail Price Index or 2.5 per cent, whichever
is higher. In addition during the next Parliament, the Government will
re-link the up-rating of the basic State Pension to average earnings.
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