House of Commons – Dec. 14, 2016 – 111

Question put (Standing Order No. 31(2)), That the original words stand part of the Question. Amendment: I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “House” to the end of the Question and add: “affirms that introducing tax-free childcare, increasing the national living wage, increasing investment in affordable housing, reducing the universal credit taper, boosting investment in schools to create more good school places and taking 1.3 million individuals out of paying income tax so far this Parliament will benefit all genders and races;

welcomes the fact that there are more women in work than ever before;

further welcomes the Government’s publication of distributional analysis along with the Autumn Statement 2016;

and welcomes the action the Government is taking to develop a strong economy that works for everyone, regardless of their background.” Original words: I beg to move, That this House notes with concern the disproportionate impact of the Government’s policies on women;

further notes that, as a result of proposals in the 2016 Autumn Statement, 86 per cent of net savings to the Treasury through tax and benefit changes since 2010 will come from women, according to the House of Commons Library;

notes with concern analysis from the Women’s Budget Group which states that by 2020, in every income group, black and minority ethnic women will lose the greatest proportion of their individual income and that low income black and Asian women will lose around twice as much money as low income white men as a result of tax and benefit changes;

and calls on the Government to affirm its commitment to ensuring that women and protected groups are not disproportionately affected by tax and benefits changes, to conduct an urgent assessment of the cumulative impact of its policies on women since 2010, to take the necessary remedial steps to mitigate any disproportionate burden of tax and benefits changes on women, to publish a full equality impact analysis with the 2017 Budget and to develop and publish a gender equality strategy to improve the position of women over the remainder of this Parliament.