- Conference
- 2020 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 22 October 2019
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes with alarm the proportion of women forced into poverty by changes to the benefits system. Rather than providing a safety net for women when they need it, the way that the current system and in particular Universal Credit is structured causes in work poverty rather than challenging it.In August 2019, it was reported that 59% of Universal Credit claimants affected by the 2 child benefit cap are in work. Given that women head up 90% of one parent families and are most likely to be in lower paid jobs where Universal Credit is required to supplement income, this policy has a disproportionate impact on women.Conference fundamentally believes that no-one should be financially worse off by working and sadly for many women who claim Universal Credit, this is the case.Conference calls on the National Women�s Committee to:-1)Work with regional women�s groups and service groups to build a body of evidence showing the effects that Universal Credit is having on low paid women.2)Work with Labour Link to lobby for the scrapping of Universal Credit to be replaced by a benefit which enables women to work without being financially disadvantaged.