Why women are feeling the pinch of the cuts

Clare Williams, UNISON's Northern Regional Convenor and NEC member was interviewed yesterday in the North East Sunday Sun about the impact of Con Dem austerity measures. The region is the hardest hit of English regions with women 'being hit the worst of all ' - potentially in breach of equalities legislation: http://bit.ly/eRkjOo

Clare said: "The public sector has championed equality measures to seek to support staff, both men and women, to have paid employment and to balance their family commitments while financially supporting their families. This is crucial to women, especially with 92pc of single parent families being headed by women."

“Cameron has lauded that work should pay more than being on benefit, but if flexible working isn’t available and childcare costs are prohibitive, and jobs are not out there, then women are going to be forced to be on benefit. Pay inequality is less in the public sector compared to the private sector 11.6pc compared to 20.8pc. But low pay is still an issue in the public sector and 64pc of low paid workers are women. 40pc of women in ethnic communities live in poverty.

"One in five children in the North East live in poverty.”