Women less likely to be reaping benefits of financial support ‘for self-employed workers’

Women are less likely than men to be getting the benefits of the government’s financial support for self-employed workers, according to a new study.

Research, carried out by Women’s Budget Group, found by the end of January 2021 only 29 per cent of all claims for the government’s self-employment income support scheme (SEISS) were made by women, despite them constituting 35 per cent of self-employed workers.

The report found some 632,000 self-employed women made claims for the payments totalling just over £1.4bn by January 2021 – substantially less than the 1,557,000 claims made by men which amounted to almost £4.8bn.

Researchers found just 60 per cent of eligible women claimed via SEISS, in comparison to 68 per cent of men who were entitled to it.

Women on average claimed £2,200 whereas men claimed on average £3,300 – with the report attributing the disparity to self-employed women tending to earn less than their male counterparts.

Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, director of the UK Women’s Budget Group, said their research draws attention to the fact the government has overlooked women.

She said: “The IFS finds that approximately 1.3 million people will be ineligible for SEISS because less than half their income comes from self-employment. As the majority of self-employed women are part-time, this has put them at greater risk of being excluded from the government’s self-employed support package.

“Overall, our analysis finds that women in general and young women, in particular, have been furloughed at higher levels which places them at greater risk of redundancy once the furlough scheme ends in September.”

She noted the government’s plans to “build back better” are predominantly centred around construction projects which are more likely to generate jobs filled by men.

“Our work has shown that investment in care could create nearly three times as many jobs as the same amount of money invested in construction,” Dr Stephenson added. “A care-led recovery would create more jobs for men, and many more for women, who are at greater risk of redundancy.”

The charity drew attention to the fact that young women aged between 18 and 25 are the biggest demographic of any age or gender to be furloughed. Around a quarter of young female employees have been furloughed, whereas 20 per cent of young men are on furlough.

There are similar disparities when you look at adults, with some 52 per cent of women having been furloughed despite them only constituting 47 per cent of the workforce.

The research comes after a charity recently lost its legal challenge against the government for indirect discrimination over the amount of financial support available to self-employed mothers during the pandemic.

Pregnant Then Screwed argued that the self-employed scheme breaches equality laws and that as a result of the way that grants are calculated, around 75,000 women who took maternity leave between 2016 and 2019 received lower payments than those whose average income was unaffected by maternity-related leave.

SEISS payments are assessed based on average monthly profits over the previous three tax years – effectively between 2016 and 2019 – and are worth up to £2,500 a month.