Gendering the UK's social policy response to the COVID-19 crisis

新冠肺炎爆发和随之而来的经济危机促使包括英国在内的世界各国政府采取非常行动来支持公民，其中许多人的生计正面临前所未有的冲击。例如，英国推出了就业保留计划(JRS)、自雇收入支持计划(SEISS)和福利改革。JRS向大流行期间不需要的工人支付每月收入的80%，最高可达2500 GB，而SEISS向年收入低于5万GB的自营职业者支付前三年平均年收入80%的应税补助金。政府还增加了现有福利提供的支持，如通用抵免和工作税收抵免。国际劳工组织(Ilo)等机构建议，政府支持应该针对那些受新冠肺炎经济影响最大的人。女性属于这些群体中的一员--研究已经表明，英国女性比男性更有可能失业或收入减少，这主要是因为女性在不稳定、低收入的工作和关闭的经济部门中的比例过高。学校和托儿所的关闭加剧了妇女对无偿护理工作的不成比例的责任，性别与更广泛的结构性不平等交织在一起，使特定妇女--包括单身母亲和BAME妇女--面临更大的负面经济后果风险。为了减轻这些影响并确保从危机中恢复对性别问题有敏感认识，迫切需要将性别观点纳入应急和长期社会政策对策。然而，目前缺乏关于如何成功做到这一点的知识。为了填补这一知识空白，我们的项目探索了英国当前的社会政策回应在设计、获取和影响方面是否对性别敏感。我们通过(1)记录和比较世界各地的社会政策反应，以调查英国的反应是否比其他国家的反应更多或更少地对性别敏感；(2)通过对接纳的性别分析，评估英国政府对不同群体的社会支持的影响；以及(3)探索不同政策方法在危机前后对性别不平等的长期指标的影响。该项目将突出最有可能在短期和长期内减轻性别经济和社会风险的政策选择，并促进从危机中实现最公平的性别复苏。

The COVID-19 outbreak and resultant economic crisis have led to governments around the world, including the UK, taking extraordinary action to support citizens, many of whom are facing unprecedented shocks to their livelihoods. For example, the UK has launched the Job Retention Scheme (JRS), the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), and changes to benefits. The JRS pays workers who are not needed during the pandemic at 80% of their earnings up to £2500 per month, while the SEISS pays a taxable grant of 80% of average annual earnings for the previous three years to self-employed people earning less than £50,000 per year. The Government has also increased the support provided by existing benefits such as Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit.Bodies such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) recommend that government support should target those most affected by the economic fallout from COVID-19. Women form one of these groups - research has already shown that women in the UK are more likely than men to have become unemployed or to have reduced earnings, largely as a result of over-representation in precarious, low-paid work and shut-down economic sectors. School and nursery closures have intensified women's disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care work, and gender intersects with wider structural inequalities which place particular women - including single mothers and BAME women - at greater risk of negative economic consequences. To mitigate these impacts and ensure a gender-sensitive recovery from the crisis, there is an urgent need for gendered perspectives to be built into emergency and long-term social policy responses. However, there is currently a lack of knowledge on how this can successfully be done. To fill this gap in knowledge, our project explores whether the current UK social policy response is gender-sensitive in design, access, and impacts. We do this by (1) documenting and comparing social policy responses around the world to investigate whether the response in the UK is more or less gender-sensitive than that of other countries (2) assessing the reach of UK government social support to different groups through a gendered analysis of uptake and (3) exploring the impact of different policy approaches on longer-term indicators of gender inequalities through and after the crisis. The project will highlight the policy options that are most likely to mitigate gendered economic and social risks in the short and longer term and promote the most gender-equitable recovery from the crisis.