Evaluate the effectiveness of government policies in reducing inequalities

amongst disadvantaged groups.

The government has introduced a variety of policies that are aimed at

disadvantaged groups in order to reduce inequalities. These policies have
worked to a varying degree.

The Universal Credit has been introduced recently to simplify the benefit
system and replace specific payments such as, Jobs seekers Allowance, Income
Support, Child Tax Benefit, Housing Benefit, Working Tax Credit, and Income
related Employment and Support Allowance. This new benefit aims to encourage
people to work for more hours, move into work and make people better off if
they are working. This payment would have a big impact on the society, as
the government believe that 3.1 million households would be entitled to
more benefits. On the other hand, it has been argued that as a result of
Universal Credit 2.8 million households would be entitled to less. To claim the
Universal Credit, there are no restrictions in the number of hours the person
works per week. However, the amount of money the claimants gets would drop
gradually once they began to earn more. This is effective, as people wont lose
all their benefits right away. Furthermore, the Universal Credit is paid
monthly therefore effective in terms of getting people to become more
responsible for themselves with spending their money on longer terms. However,
some people argue that this approach could push a lot of claimants into debt, as
a result of spending all the money within a short period of time. Also the cap on
Housing Benefit could cause people to move into poorer areas. This would have a
huge impact on families with children as they could live in bad conditions or in
dangerous area.

Therefore some people can argue that although the Universal Credit
although might simplify the benefits system, it could create more problems
and issues in our society in terms of housing and into debt.

One group in society at a clear disadvantage is women. Women are more likely
to be single-parents who are often caught in the low paid, part time work and
are paid the minimum wage. The minimum wage was first introduced in April
1999 and had the aim of increasing the income of the one million workers
including 78% of women in low-paid work. The current minimum wage of 6.51
per hour for those over twenty one is on the highest increase since 2008 and
the government claim that over one million people will see a pay rise of up to
355 per year due to the above inflation change. This suggests that the
minimum wage is an effective policy in lowering wealth inequalities for
disadvantaged groups such as women. However, the living Wage Foundation
has argued that the National Minimum Wage does not reflect the cost of
living and believe minimum wage should meet the higher living wage of up to 10
per hour. In 2010, of 3.5 million employees paid less that 7 per hour, two -
thirds were women and one - third was men.

This therefore shows that the minimum wage does not reduce the inequality
of gender pay gap for women because many women are still trapped in low
paid work and are supporting families on a minimum income.

Tax Credits are a means-tested state benefit that provides extra money to
people responsible for children, disabled workers and other workers on lower
incomes. There are two types of Tax Credits Child Tax Credits and Working
Tax Credits. People may be eligible for both of them depending on
circumstances. The amount you qualify for also depends on your circumstances
and your households income. Similar to other government policies, there is
argument as to whether it is effective or not. Reasons to support the
effectiveness of the Tax Credits is that this benefit has lifted lots of lone
parents and families with children out of poverty, an increase income in
poorer households allows the family to afford everything they need to live a
basic life. Tax Credits helps boost peoples money depending on the wage they
receive and how much money they have to pay each month which ensure that no
family is living in absolute poverty. Tax Credits have proved to work in some
ways as there are fewer children now that live in what would have been called
poverty a decade ago. On the other hand, Tax Credit could be portrayed not
to be effective as the targets set by the government to end child poverty
by 2020 looks unattainable. Those who qualify for Tax Credits are people
who work sixteen hours of more, although even though this boosts their income,
it does not entirely help as it is based on what you earn, so therefore the
problem actually lies with low pay (despite there being a NMW). The UK child
poverty is still above the EU average.

This shows that tax credits have been useful to a certain extent as many
families have been lifted out of poverty, however, it does not solve the
problem of low pay.

Overall, it could be argued that these three policies have attempted to

improve the financial situation of disadvantaged groups by increasing pay
and simplifying the benefits system, however it is broadly accepted that
the issue of poverty will not be resolve in line with government targets.