Olivia Dehnavi
10 May 2021
As the pandemic and erratic lockdown conditions have seen the economy largely shut down, we’ve entered a jobs crisis and watched unemployment rise. Government policy has deepened inequality and meant that women have had to juggle job insecurity with increased amounts of childcare and housework.
As the financial crisis continues, we need to think about how poverty can drive women to commit offences.
Women worse off
Women are suffering disproportionately from the financial consequences of the pandemic. They are more likely to lose their job or be put on furlough than men. Plus some of the sectors with highest employment rates for women have been impacted the most by closures – like administration, hospitality and retail.
As a result, women with convictions are among those most committed to finding employment. With competition for jobs increasing, it’s more important than ever to make sure they aren’t left behind.
The cycle of poverty and offending
Once a woman has committed a crime, she can enter a cycle of criminalisation that is hard to escape. Research shows that among women, poverty is a major risk factor for reoffending.
Of women who are sent to prison, before custody 81% are unemployed, compared with 8% of the general population. 6 in 10 women are released from prison homeless, at which point they are handed a discharge grant of just £46, a sum that has remained the same since 1996. After custody, women are three times less likely to be employed than men.
Poverty can be a driver for offending even for women who have a job or are claiming benefits. In many cases, minimum wage barely covers household expenses, particularly for women caring for children. 38% of women with convictions committed their offence to support their children.
Poverty is especially linked to ‘acquisitive’ crimes like theft or fraud that are the most common offences among women. Women are also disproportionately likely to be locked up for TV licence evasion and child truancy, both linked to low household income.
The two main causes of poverty are inadequate social security and failings in the labour market. When we look behind a woman’s conviction, it is often benefits that are too low to comfortably cover the essentials, or the inaccessibility of a living wage, that led her there.
Candy’s Story
Candy is a single mum who was working three days a week in a shop when she began struggling to pay the nursery costs for her young daughter. She was staying in temporary accommodation, and her Universal Credit allowance barely met a quarter of her childcare costs.
When the nursery said that she had to pay her outstanding fees or her daughter wouldn’t be able to come in any more, Candy panicked. The only alternative was to quit her job to look after her daughter. She knew this wasn’t an option. ‘I wouldn’t have had any money, I wouldn’t be able to top up gas and electric, buy food, buy nappies,’ she said.
Candy made a difficult decision, and took money from the till at the shop where she worked. It was just enough to meet the nursery fees. ‘It was solely to keep my head above water and so I could keep working to feed my daughter and myself.’
‘I felt pressure from all angles. I felt pressured at work, I felt pressured at home.’ – Candy
It was Candy’s first offence and she didn’t receive a custodial sentence. What made things worse was, ironically, now that she had a criminal record it was harder than ever for Candy to find another job. ‘I get judged by it. You miss out on opportunities because people think of you as a criminal.’
Zahra’s Story
Zahra claimed Universal Credit the day she was released from prison in October 2020, knowing that she wouldn’t survive without receiving benefits. Like many women leaving prison, she had no home to go to since her housing benefit was halted when she was sentenced.
Since there is a five-week wait for the first Universal Credit payment, Zahra took out an advance loan. The money she received that day would tide her over until her first payment, but she would have to pay it back over the coming months, meaning that she was plunged straight into debt.
At first, Universal Credit covered Zahra’s rent, with the money sent straight to her landlord. However, in November, the amount she received to her personal account dropped suddenly and without warning.
It turned out that Department for Work and Pensions had recalculated the housing allowance that they were willing to cover. It had fallen drastically. In December, she received £4 to live on for the month. Since January, she has received nothing at all.
‘When you haven’t got assistance and bare necessities cost an arm and a leg, you’re going to end up a burden. You’ll never be able to survive’ – Zahra
Zahra has survived by depending on multiple charities and a food bank for essentials. She says that she worries about rehabilitation, since ‘with a criminal record it’s harder to get employment.’
‘How can you become a productive member of society when you’re negotiating multiple different systems, with tech difficulties and mental health issues, remotely, in a pandemic?’
Poverty reduction as crime prevention
While it is simplistic to say that poverty causes criminal behaviour, we know that the majority of people who receive criminal convictions are among the most economically disadvantaged in society.
‘Being poor is a crime’ – Candy
Lack of financial independence is a significant risk factor for women who offend. Women’s offences are more likely to be financially motivated than men’s, yet they are less likely to find work after a conviction. This is troubling, since employment is the number one driver in preventing re-offending. A job brings stability and purpose, and has the power to pull somebody out of a cycle of poverty and offending.
We all have a responsibility to ensure that everyone can enjoy a decent standard of living. To reduce crime and reoffending, we must free women from the constraints of poverty. That means supporting women with convictions: by increasing the prison discharge grant and through the gate support, providing benefits that cover rent and living costs, ensuring that women have access to meaningful work, and offering the skills they need to obtain it.
The alternative—criminalisation—locks women into poverty and restricts their options. It is the furthest thing from justice in an already unequal society.
Olivia Dehnavi is the Policy and Research Officer at Working Chance. A longer form of this blog post was first published here.
Is it a Crime to be Poor? 