Women And The Poll Tax

EDM number 1300 in 1989-90, proposed by Nigel Griffiths on 18/07/1990.

That this House notes the report from the Low Pay Unit, Taxing Times: The Financial Effects of the Poll Tax on Women, and that of the 28 million people who are worse off as a result of the tax, 15 million of these are women; condemns the paucity of government statistics on the effects of the tax on women and black people, creating the danger that their particular problems will remain hidden in household statistics; recognises that 70 per cent. of low paid workers are women who will have great difficulty in paying the poll tax, when the average annual poll tax bill of ú363 represents 10 per cent. of the gross average annual income of a part-time working woman; realises that young women workers under the age of 21 years have no legal protection of a minimum wage, are liable for the full adult tax but a lower rebate than other single adults; understands how black women will lose out because they are likely to live in inner city areas and large households and how carers and their disabled relatives are facing difficult decisions because of the costs of the tax; rejects the idea that married or cohabiting women with little or no income should have no independent right to rebates and should be liable for their partner's debts; and calls for the immediate repeal of the poll tax and the introduction of a system of local authority finance based on the ability to pay.

This motion has been signed by a total of 111 MPs.