Two Child Limit & Rape Clause and Justice for WASPI Women

From Patricia Gibson SNP MP

Recent weeks have seen the ushering in of yet more Tory benefit cuts, further ensuring that those who rely on financial support due to illness or disability find it increasingly difficult to maintain a minimum standard of living. The cut to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for those in the Work-Related Activity Group (WRAG) commenced at the beginning of April, leaving those affected £30 per week worse off – a cut of roughly 30%. The WRAG group is made up of those deemed too ill to physically apply for jobs. Fair game for the Tories then!

What is perhaps more appalling than the financial cut, is the pretence that incentives to work are being provided, implying that those who receive ESA WRAG are otherwise happy to sit at home and ‘cash in.’ This is a bewildering notion, given that people claiming those benefits often suffer from conditions such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease and mental illness, each of which can be wholly debilitating.

Yet for many news of ESA WRAG cuts have been overshadowed by steps taken by the UK Government to amend child tax credits rules. Earlier this month, the UK Government railroaded a policy change through Parliament without debate or parliamentary approval, culminating in a new two-child limit for people claiming child tax credits.

The Tories also mandated that women who were raped must prove their child was conceived thereby to be exempted from these rules.

Fundamentally, the Government is asking women to re-live the ordeal of a rape simply to make a benefit claim. The Tories seriously misjudged the impact of this. The reason why the majority of rapes go unreported is due to the stress and torment placed on the victim when revisiting their ordeal. This seems to have completely eluded the Tories. Shame on them!

This fiasco exposed a yawning hole in UK Government’s plans to implement the policy, given that public sector workers who will arbitrate whether a woman’s child was born of rape haven’t been trained in this, despite the changes already being implemented.

The financial aspect makes for grim reading. A family whose third child was born before midnight on 5th April could be £50,000 better off over 18 years than one whose child was born a day later. As a result, an estimated 200,000 more children are expected to be living in poverty by 2020.

The outcry against this abhorrent policy has been deafening. Religious leaders, trade unions, MPs and charities, including Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland all denounced it. Even Government Ministers acknowledge the policy’s failings.

It’s clear the UK Government has refused to listen to overwhelming opposition from groups, representing some of Scotland’s most vulnerable women. These changes are anti-women and anti-family, and will decimate household budgets for the “just about managing” families the Prime Minister was so keen to speak for on her first day in office. Ill thought out, malicious policies of this sort damage lives. We in the SNP will fight to overturn this abhorrent policy.

Patricia has also called on the UK Government to deliver pension justice as she addressed a rally on Saturday in Kilmarnock in support of Ayrshire Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI).

The event was supported by many SNP MPs and MSPs who pledged to continue to work with women who have had their pension age raised with little or no notice. This fact is acknowledged by the UK Tory Government which, despite this, remains unwilling to put in place measures to ease the financial hardship caused to these women.

Patricia said:

“I have spoken in all seven Westminster debates on this important matter and collected 2,534 petition signatures across my constituency to help persuade the Tory Government to rethink this cruel injustice.

“Sadly, the Tories are deaf to the pleas for justice from these women, 4,800 of whom live in my own constituency. The contract they believed they had with the UK Government has been torn up and left many of these women in dire financial straits when they should be collecting the pension to which they are entitled.

“Until this matter is fully addressed, these woman will continue to fight for justice and I and my party will continue to support them in this fight. The Tory Government hopes these women will give up and go away. They won’t!”.