Lesbilicious - the web’s tastiest lesbian magazine

Women’s charity the Fawcett Society is making a legal challenge to the government over its “blantant unfairness” towards women in the recent emergency budget.

George Osborne’s budget – his first as chancellor in the newly formed coalition government - was widely criticised for its detrimental cuts to benefits that affected mainly women, the poor and people with disabilities.

According to Fawcett, “many of the cuts are to the benefits that more women than men rely on, and the changes to the tax system will benefit far more men than women”.

The charity has filed papers with the High Court in London, seeking a judicial review of the emergency budget, on the grounds that the government should have assessed the budget’s impact on equality.

Ceri Goddard, the chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said: “Successive governments have failed to give enough consideration to how their policies will impact on equality between men and women, but this budget shows a whole new level of disregard for the importance of equality law and everyday women’s lives.

“The blatant unfairness, and the sheer scale of the impact this budget could have on women, has left us with little choice but to resort to the courts for action.

“In times of economic crisis, it becomes more not less important to consider women’s basic rights, and observe the laws put there to safeguard them. We know action is needed to cut the deficit but such critical decisions – especially such eye-watering cuts to public spending – should not have been made without considering the impact on women.”

According to Goddard, “women already earn less, own less and have less control over their finances than men. Yet some £5.8bn of the £8bn of cuts contained in the budget will be taken from women, who will also be worst affected by the coming cuts to public services – 65% of public sector workers are women”.

A spokesman for the Treasury said he could not comment on a legal matter at this time.

Posted in: Campaigns & Politics |