Press Release: 'This Government Has Been A Disaster For Working Women' - Rachael Chrisp

Reading Labour Party Women's Officer, and Park candidate, Rachael Chrisp has labelled the Tory-led Government "a disaster for working women" in a message issued to mark International Women's Day.

Ms Chrisp points out that one of the first cuts George Osbourne made was in help with paying for childcare, and goes on: "And then Mr Osbourne froze Child Benefit, made women work longer before reaching pension age, and cut Tax Credits - 450 working women in Reading will lose £75 a week as from April 1st because they are working less than 24 hours a week. And those that want to work longer hours are often being frustrated because the Government is offering big retailers the chance to use people on 'work experience' instead, people pushed into putting in the hours without getting the pay.

"Mr Cameron promised that this would be the most family-friendly government ever," she says, "but as with so much else he promised it has been anything but. The truth is that working women who did not cause the banking crisis are being made to pay for it. There are twenty-two male millionaires in the Cabinet and only 49 women among 305 Tory MPs, so perhaps that's hardly a surprise."

ENDS.

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Press Release: Working Tax Credits cuts this April will cost 450 Reading families £4000 a year

Labour Women's Officer, Park candidate and Reading Young Labour executive member, Rachael Chrisp says that 450 families with children in part-time work in the two Reading constituencies are set to lose around £4,000 a year from April 2012.

They are among more 212,000 families nationally, earning less that £17,700 a year who will lose all of their Working Tax Credits unless they can increase their working hours for a minimum of 16 hours a week to 24 hours a week. Between them those families have almost half-a-million children.

Rachael Chrisp says: 'The Tory-led Government has been raising taxes and cutting spending too far and too fast. Unemployment is rising and the economy is going in reverse: nineteen out of every twenty employers are cutting people's hours, not increasing them.  And from April, 450 Reading households, with 900 children, will be losing almost £4,000 a year, or £75 a week".

"It tells you everything you need to know about David Cameron and George Osbourne that, while the banks are getting a tax cut this year, and the bankers are getting bonuses, their Government is making life harder for parents in the squeezed middle who are working and trying to do the right thing. As we've been saying, this financial crisis was created by the bankers, and is being paid for by women and children".

ENDS.

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