A new analysis from the Women’s Budget Group has found that self-employed women are less likely to be granted Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) payments than their male counterparts.
According to the study, while women represent 34.8 per cent of the self-employed workforce, they claimed just 28.8 per cent of SEISS payments made by the end of January 2021.
A total of 632,000 female freelancers claimed slightly over £1.4 billion under SEISS up to the end of January. In comparison, over 1.5 million self-employed men claimed close to £4.8 billion in the same period.
The disparity was also evident in the amount paid out for individual grants under the scheme, with the average payment to women standing at £2,200, compared to £3,300 for men. This figure likely reflects a wider overall trend of women earning less than men.
UK Women’s Budget Group Director Mary-Ann Stephenson said: “Our gendered analysis of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) highlights how the UK Government has failed to consider the employment situation for women.”
“The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) finds that approximately 1.3 million people will be ineligible for SEISS because less than half their income comes from self-employment. As the majority of self-employed women are part-time, this has put them at greater risk of being excluded from the UK Government’s self-employed support package.”
The study, part of wider Local Data Project research into gender differences in accessing the government’s COVID-19 support, also found that women were more likely to have been furloughed than men, despite making up less of the UK workforce.
Slightly more than 52 per cent of women in the UK have been furloughed, despite females making up around 47.3 per cent of the UK workforce. In total, around 2.3 million women had been furloughed at the end of February this year, in comparison to around 2.1 million men.
