Support for women in poverty
A Backbench Business Committee debate on support for women in poverty is scheduled for Thursday 23 March 2023 in Westminster Hall.
Poverty data from the DWP's Households Below Average Incomes survey is measured at a household level, so data on specifically women in poverty is not available.
The Commons Library briefing Poverty in the UK: statistics provides poverty statistics in general.
The Commons Library briefing School meals and nutritional standards (England) provides the the number of children who are eligible for free school meals.
Social security support for women in povertyFeatures of the UK social security system that once formally treated women and men differently have been removed over recent decades. However, some issues remain. For example, policies around benefit support for households with children tend to affect women disproportionately, and historic State Pension policies continue to disadvantage some women. Commons Library publications covering these issues include:
- Commons Library briefing CBP-9301, The impact of the two-child limit in Universal Credit
- Commons library debate pack CDP-2023-0061, Support for single parent families
- Commons library debate pack CDP-2022-0208, Social security support for children
- Commons Library briefing CBP-7286, Women and pensions
- Commons Library briefing CBP-7045, Increases in the State Pension age for women born in the 1950s
The Women’s Budget Group (WBG) are a campaigning organisation researching the impact of government policy on women. Some recent WBG reports/briefings exploring social security policy include:
- Women’s Budget Group full response to the Spring Budget 2023, 21 March 2023
- WBG analysis finds cuts to benefits would drive over 100,000 lone parents and 200,000 children into poverty, Women’s Budget Group press release, 10 October 2022
- Who loses from benefit uprating changes? A gendered analysis, 10 October 2022