Women are today revealed as the £48billion losers from Rishi Sunak’s Budget.
The average British woman over 18 will be £1,800 worse off over the next six years because of the Chancellor’s tax rises.
And those who are older will be hit with £2,500 less in pension benefits.
A gender audit of Wednesday’s announcements by the House of Commons Library shows that 27 million women will be disproportionately affected.
Commons researchers say that the total bill will be £56billion - though women are better of to the tune of £8billion because of the change in the Universal Credit taper rate.
That means they will lose 55p from every extra pound earned instead of 63p - but that is still a higher rate of tax than Boris Johnson pays.
Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary Anneliese Dodds said: “It’s scandalous that this Conservative Government is picking women’s pockets when so many are still picking up the pieces from the Covid pandemic.
“Women needed a plan to tackle the growing cost of living crisis. What they got was an out of touch budget that cut taxes on banks, frequent flyers and champagne but left women a whopping £48 billion worse off.”
The Rishi raid on women’s finances include -
- £39.3billion from next year’s hike in National Insurance.
- £15.5billion from the loss of the pension triple lock.
- £161million from the decision to move back Pension Credit changes from 2023 to 2025.
There were also few equality impact assessments as required by law in Budget documents - just four out of 194 pages Labour says.
Ms Dodds added: “That tells you all you need to know about this Government’s priorities.
“When it comes to the Conservatives, equality isn’t one of them.”
Yet Covid has had a greater impact on the incomes of women than men.
They were more likely to be furloughed, lose pay to home-school, and work in sectors seeing the slowest economic recovery.
The HoC report says that of the £105billion the Chancellor is raking in 46% of it will come from women.
Chancellor raffles off signed fiver - for a fiver a ticket
Rishi Sunak sought to make even more money out of his Budget - by offering the chance to win a signed copy for a fiver.
The Chancellor joined Tory chairman Oliver Dowden for a fund raising video call with party members after delivering his spending plans on Wednesday.
And organisers told participants: “You can enter as many times as you’d like with entries just £5 each.”
Labour’s Rupa Huq said: ”This demonstrates just how out of touch the Tories are with working families.
“Instead of fuelling his own ego, our billionaire Chancellor needs to get a grip on the growing cost of living crisis.”
Last week Sir Lindsay Hoyle blasted the Chancellor for leaking details of his Budget before delivering it to Parliament.
The Commons Speaker said that ministers should resign for doing that.
In 1947 Labour chancellor Hugh Dalton was forced to quit after leaking key passages of his budget to a reporter.
