The government has failed to carry out an analysis of how the budget will affect women, the Women's Budget Group said
By Astrid Zweynert
LONDON, March 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Women's rights campaigners welcomed a financial boost for social care announced by British finance minister Philip Hammond in his annual budget speech on Wednesday but said it fell short of covering a funding gap that is hitting women hardest.
Hammond announced a 2 billion pound ($2.4 billion) increase for social care over the next three years, trying to address one of the most high-profile strains on public services at a time of persistent spending cuts.
"Two billion pounds for social care is welcome but the crisis is such that it is only a third of what is needed by 2020," said Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, a women's rights charity.
"There has to be a more sustainable strategic solution or the system will never escape from crisis," she said in a statement.
The Women's Budget Group, an independent charity monitoring the impact of government policies on women and men, said the care funding gap was estimated to reach up to 3.5 billion pounds annually by the end of the current parliament.
Calculations have shown 58 percent of unpaid carers are women and that their work is worth 77 billion pounds per year.
"Not only are the majority of paid and unpaid carers women, but the majority of those with care needs are women too," the group's co-director, Mary-Ann Stephenson, said in a statement.
The government had failed to carry out an analysis of how the budget will affect women, the Women's Budget Group said, even though Britain prides itself on pursuing policies that promote gender equality.
"Without such an assessment, the government cannot fully understand the impact of its decisions on different groups, including impact, or how to minimise unintended negative impacts," Stephenson said.
Campaigners also welcomed 20 million pounds in extra funding for services dealing with domestic violence against women and girls but said it was too little given the scale of the problem.
Hammond also announced a 5 million pound fund to celebrate next year's centenary of the first British women to get the vote and another 5 million pounds for women returning to work.
Sarah Champion, equalities spokeswoman for the opposition Labour Party, said despite the extra spending pledges the government was turning back the clock on econmic equality.
"Ninety nine years later (after women first got the vote), women are still having to fight for economic equality under this ...government," said Champion.
($1 = 0.8233 pounds)
(Reporting by Astrid Zweynert @azweynert , Editing by Ros Russell.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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