Equality Impact Assessments

In gathering the data for the first Cuts Watch Cymru report (due out in January) we have been looking at the Equality Impact Assessments for the planned and already implemented welfare reforms. These reports are published for policy changes initiated by Governments. The purpose is to examine the impact of any planned changes to different groups. Often the reports give details of several alternative policy options which were also considered. The production of these reports, including the analysis of data, is undertaken by civil servants within the department. As they are produced ‘in-house’ they may not always provide an impartial analysis of how the changes may affect different groups of people.

In seeking justification for their planned changes they do not properly examine their impact; instead they are too much concerned with building a strong case for the Governments policy decisions. This is achieved through the authors carefully selecting their data and information in a way that supports their argument. It seems that anything which may detract from their argument, or does not support their claims is then abandoned. This does not constitute rigorous analysis and perhaps arises from a need for civil servants to justify the plans of their political masters.

The potential for bias is introduced when you consider the way data is presented, and what impression this leaves. Numbers can be presented in a particular way to achieve certain effects. One of the already implemented changes which Cuts Watch is researching is reductions in the Support for Mortgage Interest (halved in October 2010). This is paid to people claiming certain means tested benefits to help them with the interest element of their mortgage costs. Initial findings on the ground from our research show that people in Wales are losing their homes as a result of these reductions. These will be some of the most vulnerable people within society – a large proportion of claimants are older people claiming the pension credit.

Table 1 is an extract from the equality impact assessment report relating to the planned changes published by the Department for Work and Pensions back in August 2010. This shows the number of people who were predicted to still have their costs covered after the change was introduced (albeit at different proportions). For example, it was predicted that 93% of customers will still have at least
60% of their mortgage interest costs covered by the planned changes. They also predict that half of the claimants will still be getting all of their mortgage interest costs covered. Directly following this they mention that before the planned changes many people were being paid more money than their mortgage interest was costing them. You are left with the impression that it will have very little impact,
and in fact will be all round better given the savings to the tax payer from people not being over paid. An alternative way of  interpreting table 1 is to say that 7% of customers will now have less than 60% of their mortgage interest costs covered. This 7% represents 15,750 people in the UK who were predicted to have a massive fall in the money they receive. This figure could represent the number of people who are at risk of losing their home, and so would seem quite important, yet is not included in the Governments analysis.

I think it is fine for the Government to justify its actions, but the premise of equality impact assessments is surely to get the most accurate and full picture of impacts on vulnerable groups. If this makes their proposals look bad, then so be it. It’s much better to have equality impact assessments which show that the proposed changes will have a damaging impact because we will then have an accurate picture of the impacts and so will know better how to mitigate them. Plans can be put in place to support people, but this can only happen if we have accurate evidence about the impacts – who are the affected groups, where are they, and how much are they going to be impacted.

Michael Donnelly, Policy & Research Officer, Bevan Foundation