Womans Own article on "the rise in female benefit fraudsters" [hmm]

[Darkesteyes]

In this weeks Womans Own there is a story about the "rise in female benefit fraudsters"

(I didn't buy it I caught sight of the cover in Tesco and had a quick flick through) A lot of these womens weeklies are aimed at working class women and seem to take great glee in turning women against each other. But make no mistake the executives at the top are male.

The womens glossies have their faults but ive never seen them run benefits propaganda.
In fact a couple of years ago Marie Claire ran a decent article about the rise in food banks.

Well surely women are more likely to be in poverty than men? Surprised that female benefit claimants are seen as a minority (among benefit claimants).
What an odd story

Ah sorry just relised this is about fraud

I saw benefits and didnt read further
Ignore me

I await the follow up article on tax fraud with baited breath.

It's more demonisation of women, poor women and poor mothers.

EXACTLY What about women who are victims of financial abuse. They would do better to run articles on this raising awareness. But they wont.

Is it one of these "rise of women doing X" stories where when you read the small print it turns out men are still doing it more and always have been? eg drinking smoking being fat being an older parent etc etc anything you can think of that is deemed BAD.

Would agree with others though that stats need to be in the context of how many claiming in total compared to other groups & levels of poverty, care for other people etc etc

Never read woman's own so not sure how in depth their analysis usually is.

I suspect so LoveSardines. But it's not unsurprising that female benefit fraudsters are on the rise because as Stealth points out women are disproportionally affected by the cuts and changes to benefits.

Targeting benefit fraudsters is generally targeting those on the poorer/poorest end of the scale. But yes lets stick the boot in some more and while we're at it stigmatise benefit recipients in general.

It all just leaves a nasty taste in your mouth.