Women and the Cost of Living

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Gloria De Piero]

It is absolutely right that women are hit three times as hard, and I will explain later how that has happened.

Half of mums surveyed by Netmums said that to save money they turned off the heating when their children were out. The Government talk about recovery, but these women know it is definitely not a recovery for women. Under this Government, unemployment among women has reached its highest levels in a generation, long-term female unemployment has increased eight times as fast as for men, the number of older women unemployed has increased by more than a third, and black and minority ethnic women are twice as likely to be unemployed as the national average.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the 242% increase in unemployment among women over 25 in Oldham over the past couple of years is a real indictment of the Government and their policies?

[Gloria De Piero]

That is absolutely right. That is why it is important to tackle long-term unemployment, and that is exactly what a Labour Government would do.

When women do manage to find work, more often than not it is part time, low-wage or temporary. The number of women working in temporary jobs increased twice as fast as the number of men. Three times more young women are in low-wage jobs than 20 years ago, and the number of women in part-time work is at its highest level ever.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Jo Swinson)]

I welcome the opportunity to respond to this debate. How we manage to assist people—particularly women as that is our focus today—with the cost of living is undoubtedly an important issue, and it is a positive thing to have debated it. It is always a great pleasure to be in one of the debates in which so many women want to contribute and speak. It reminds us of how it would be a much better Chamber if we had a better balance of men and women on both sides of the House.

We have had some interesting analogies. My hon. Friend the Member for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin) conjured up an image of the Chancellor as Goldilocks. I must say that I found it slightly distressing to imagine the blond pigtails. The analogy was continued by the hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop). Perhaps the fairy tale theme is relevant to the debate. Unfortunately, many of the contributions from the Opposition Benches had something of the fairy tale about them and a bit of a reality bypass. Underlying the speeches was the suggestion that we can somehow wish away the deficit and avoid the difficult decisions that are necessary to get our economy back on track. I want to take a minute to remember the scale of the situation that we have been facing and trying to deal with for the past three years.

Our economy is recovering from the most damaging financial crisis in generations after a decade of growth built on debt. Of all the major economies, only Japan had a deeper recession. When we came into power, the Government inherited the largest deficit since the second world war. Our largest trading partner, the eurozone, has been in recession. We have had to deal with a significant set of challenges, and we need to look at this matter within that wider overall context. Of course it is important that the Government take action to help with the cost of living, and I will go into more detail on exactly what we are doing about that. The broader context is vital, and my hon. Friend the Member for West Worcestershire made a powerful contribution in which she demolished some of the myths and set that context out. The best way to help people with the cost of living is to build a stronger economy to create the stability that we need for employers to prosper and to create new jobs. That will help more people into work. Those are exactly the things that the Government’s policies are delivering.

[Debbie Abrahams]

What does the Minister think about the performance of the UK? Until recently, we were 18th out of the 20 countries in the G20. Is that the sort of economic performance that she wants the Government to take credit for?

[Jo Swinson]

The hon. Lady will be aware that we have the fastest growing economy in the developed world. I hope that she will not be as churlish as some of those on the Opposition Front Bench—although not those on the Front Bench today—and welcome that news rather than feel glum at the idea that the Government’s economic policies might actually be working.

Employment and work are the best way to drive up living standards. We have 446,000 more women in employment since the general election. We had some interesting exchanges about the numbers of women in employment and employment rates. Different individuals bring forward different figures to support their arguments. I argue that both the numbers and the rate are important. We have more women in work than ever before—fewer women are economically inactive—but the employment rate is also increasing. It has gone up 1.2% for women to 66.8% since May 2010, which is very close to its highest rate ever.