The UK government’s agenda of austerity, welfare reform and cuts to public services has fallen disproportionately on women and children. House of Commons Library analysis shows that since 2010 between 70% and 80% of savings made by changes to benefits, taxation, pay and pensions have come from women’s incomes. The Scottish Parliament will have certain opportunities to mitigate against this with forthcoming powers over social security. We will advocate for use of these to redress this inequality and to promote real social security for women over the next parliamentary term.

• Universal Credit. At present, joint awards of Universal Credit will be paid to one member of the household. This will discriminate against women who have less access to independent resources than men and are much more likely to experience financial abuse. Green MSPs will fight for individual payments of Universal Credit in Scotland, which will support women’s access to income and safety. We will also support the option for more frequent instalments of Universal Credit, the preferred choice for many women who manage household budgets.  
• Maternity support. Green MSPs will push for a weekly ‘top-up’ to Child Benefit, which would have a positive impact on lifting women and children out of poverty.  We will push to expand the Sure Start Maternity Grant scheme with increased payments, awards for second and further children, and extended eligibility to help support pregnant women. We will also campaign for funding for health visitors and midwives to work with women to claim financial entitlements, which would bring benefits to lone mothers in particular.
• Carers’ benefits. Three quarters of carers in receipt of Carers’ Allowance (CA) are women. Greens will campaign for a 50% increase in CA to £93.15 per week. We will explore the creation of a Young Carers’ Grant and will support a redesign of CA to include a lower threshold for hours of care provided and a premium for people who care for more than one person or provide high-intensity care. Any increase in payments will require a fair settlement with the UK Government and local authorities to guarantee that such an increase does not reduce other benefits payments or increase care charges.  
• Employment support. The UK’s largest employment support scheme, the Work Programme, has failed to deliver for the people who need it. This includes different groups of women. Green MSPs will push for a new scheme that is delivered on a non-profit basis, contracted locally to the public and third sector, and which recognises the value of voluntary work. Such a scheme would address barriers to accessing work on account of age, disability, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Existing employability programmes also replicate patterns of gender stereotyping and segregation in the labour market. We would work to address this within a service that supports diverse groups of women, including lone mothers, unpaid carers, disabled women, minority ethnic women, refugee women and women experiencing domestic abuse.