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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Pregant then Screwed have lost the ir case re Covid support

9 replies

nevertrustaherdofcows · 17/02/2021 19:29

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56095672

OP posts:
ValancyRedfern · 17/02/2021 20:51

Really angry about this. Dh is self employed and has suffered as a result of this. He is the one who first pointed out to be that if he'd been the one to take maternity leave he'd have been even more screwed. I don't know how this cant be construed as indirect sex discrimination.

Sophoclesthefox · 17/02/2021 21:24

That’s really disappointing. How can it not be indirect discrimination? 75,000 women!

OvaHere · 17/02/2021 21:26

Very disappointing.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 17/02/2021 21:32

That's really frustrating.

NonnyMouse1337 · 17/02/2021 21:56

I hope they can appeal.

Thelnebriati · 17/02/2021 22:04

It looks like they are getting advice about an appeal.

I don't really understand how the judge reached her conclusion. Other benefits are means tested to the penny. No one worries about delays or expense of calculating PIP, so whats the difference?

Palavah · 18/02/2021 00:13

Disgraceful

CheeryTreeBlossom · 18/02/2021 12:22

From what I recall the government case argued (as one of their points) that the SEISS was designed and rolled out at short notice, and needed to be implemented quickly. Therefore they couldn't make adjustments for Mat leave as it would have made the process/calculation too complicated.

So they were "reasonable" to do a one size fits all approach given the constraints.

What I don't get is how that argument can still apply. Fine, day 1 you have to roll out something urgently and naturally with a predominantly male team and the male default no-one thinks about women who might be self-employed and taken maternity. But it's been months, and they have had plenty of feedback and evidence that this was a serious oversight.
Maternity and Pregnancy are stand alone protected characteristics alongside sex, how can they justify having not made any amendments in all this time when they have made substantial revisions to other aspects such as furlough?
Through maternity allowance they do have the data on who has taken maternity leave and women could provide other supplementary evidence such as MatB1 forms etc. All women are asking is that instead of a straight average of 3(?) years they are allowed the exclude those years of lesser earnings due to maternity. Even backdated now this would help a lot of women.

Taswama · 22/02/2021 20:53

Really hope they can appeal this. Just finished biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and she established the principle that administrative efficiency is not reason alone to discriminate.

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