WBG immediate response to the Spring Statement 2025

Government’s own analysis shows largest group to be hit by disability benefit cuts are single women, highlights Women’s Budget Group

Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director said: 

“We recognise the challenging situation facing the Chancellor. However, the Government is making decisions that will seriously impact people’s lives up and down the country, particularly children, women and Disabled people, based on forecasts that may not even materialise in order to meet its own self-imposed spending rules. This is deeply disappointing and misguided. 

“The Government’s own impact assessment shows that changes to social security are likely to result in an alarming 250,000 more adults and 50,000 children being pushed into poverty undermining its own child poverty strategy due to launch in June. 

“They also show that the largest group affected by the changes will be single women, making up 44% of those losing out, at an average of £1,610 a year.

“Frustratingly, there is nothing in the documents on the impact on carers or likely impact on people who may have to drop out of the workforce to pick up the care of people whose benefits have been cut – most of whom will be women. 

“Years of austerity under previous governments diminished people’s living standards and weakened the economy, making us less prepared for the economic shocks that followed. The Chancellor has committed to improving people’s living standards. This can’t be done by cutting vital social security and public services. Instead she should be investing in the foundations of our economy, repairing the damage done through austerity.

“This could be funded by taxation of the very wealthiest people in the country, redistributing resources in a time when wealth inequality is growing. We would also urge the Chancellor to reconsider her fiscal rules to recognise the value of investing in social infrastructure, including social security and public services. Ill and Disabled people have already borne the brunt of austerity, they should not pay the price of arbitrary spending rules and unreliable forecasts.” 

Impact assessments 

“The impact assessment estimates that an alarming 50,000 more children will be in poverty as a result of the changes, and 250,000 adults. 

“The equality impact assessments of changes to social security show that 44% of adults who will lose out are single women, losing an average of £1,610; 34% are single men losing an average of £1,460 and 32% are couples. 

“Single women also make up the majority of those who will gain from the changes to the standard rate (59%), but by a lower average amount of £380 a year. Single men will gain an average £470 a year. 

“Frustratingly, there is nothing in the documents on the impact on carers or likely impact on people who may have to drop out of the workforce to pick up the care of people whose benefits have been cut.” 

Economic context

“The OBR’s downgrading of the forecast growth of the economy based on the Government’s spending plans reflects a changed global economic context which is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Given the pace of global political developments those forecasts could well change again before the spending review is finalised or the Chancellor delivers her next budget. 

“The Trump administration is threatening a trade war and has cut international aid. The shifting global political alliances have seen harder negotiations in the wars in Ukraine and Palestine with the breach of ceasefires. The global consensus on the evidence of and need to tackle the climate crisis has been diminished. Combined all these factors will continue to cause economic ripples, waves and storms.

Public services and social security

“The best way to strengthen our economy as well as to shore up our resilience to these external economic shocks is to repair the UK’s social infrastructure and maintain spending on foreign aid; not impose spending cuts.  

“The austerity cuts made by previous governments weakened public services including the NHS, social care and local government and undermined how effectively we were able to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic ¹ . 

“Those same cuts, in combination with cuts to social security and changes to taxes, have slashed low income families’ living standards. The poorest women; Disabled people; Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic families; and single parent families fared the worst ² . The cost of living crisis has hit those same groups the hardest because they have fewer resources to draw on and relatively higher costs ³ .

“The rise in spending on social security is the result of a rise in need, driven by the upping of the state pension age, the lack of other support like health and social care, mental health services particularly for young people, and the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“The decision to make significant cuts to social security targeting ill and Disabled people is deeply concerning. Over 40 women’s organisations from across the UK signed an open letter yesterday urging the Chancellor to reconsider because of the impact on Disabled people and the people who care for them ⁴ , the majority of whom are women. 

“Today’s announcement that the health element of Universal Credit will not only be halved but will now also be frozen at that rate will only add to the fear and uncertainty for ill and Disabled people and their families. 

“Reducing the overall envelope for public spending for unprotected departments is likely to further erode people’s living standards, employment opportunities and widen inequalities. As the majority of people working in and using public services, women face a triple whammy from cuts as they are also the people most likely to step in unpaid to fill the gap ⁵ .

Foreign Aid

“The US cut to foreign aid has meant projects and programmes around the world face cliff edges in funding, much of which is directed towards women and girls facing poverty, conflict, displacement and violence. Existing global inequalities in wealth means foreign aid is crucial for poverty reduction and tackling global instabilities. The Chancellor reiterated today the Government’s decision to cut foreign aid and follow suit with other wealthy countries where the UK might have shown leadership, particularly given our historic role in creating these inequalities. 

Taxes

“Wealth inequality is widening. The wealthiest 10% of households hold around half of all wealth in Great Britain and the UK has the second-highest wealth disparity in the OECD ⁶ .

“There is an alternative to these cuts. In order to meet her own fiscal rules and raise enough revenue to instead invest in public services, foreign aid and social security, the Chancellor should work towards reforms to make our tax system more progressive. This should include taxing wealth directly as well as closing tax loopholes and reforming income tax. The cuts announced today could have been avoided with a 2% wealth tax on assets over £10 million, which Tax Justice UK and the Patriotic Millionaires estimate could raise up to £24 billion a year ⁷ . Moreover, polling by YouGov for Oxfam shows that 77 per cent of the public would rather the Government increase taxes on the very richest to improve public finances than see cuts to public spending ⁸ . 

Fiscal rules

“It is not right that the people who have already paid the price of austerity should bear the costs of the Government meeting its own arbitrary fiscal rules as judged by the OBR’s forecasts which could change in the next six months or year. 

“In the medium term, the Chancellor should reconsider her fiscal rules that count capital spending but not some elements of ‘day to day’ spending as investment. Fiscal policy should recognise the workers that power schools, hospitals, community centres and early years as being as much of an investment in the economy as the buildings they occupy.