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Women’s rights activists campaign to urge the government to axe the tax on tampons in London, May 2016 .
Women’s rights activists urge the government to axe the tax on tampons in London in May 2016 . Photograph: Alamy
Women’s rights activists urge the government to axe the tax on tampons in London in May 2016 . Photograph: Alamy

Women-only charities lose out in funding from tampon tax

This article is more than 5 years old

Only two in 10 charities awarded government money are specialist women’s groups

Only two in 10 charities awarded funding from the government’s controversial tampon tax are specialist women’s organisations, despite a pledge to dedicate £15m a year raised from the levy to “women’s health and support charities”.

Rape Crisis and Women’s Aid were the only two organisations specifically serving women funded from the annual tampon tax disbursement, receiving just less than £3m between them. Other groups funded included UK Community Foundations, the mental health charity Mind, Brook Young People and two housing associations.

The situation was repeated in the distribution last month of £600,000 to celebrate the centenary year of women’s suffrage, when two of the eight organisations funded focussed solely on women’s needs.

Vivienne Hayes, the chief executive of the Women’s Resource Centre, a national umbrella group for the women’s sector, said the government had political reasons for overlooking women’s charities. “They know we are the ones that will critique them and hold them to account,” she said.

“The general charities don’t always have that strong analysis of structural inequalities, so I think it’s not surprising that the women’s sector has been sidelined and the mainstream organisations that say ‘we work with women’ have been given the money.”

The government promised to use the money raised by the 5% VAT on tampons and sanitary towels to fund the women’s sector after activists led a campaign against the levy in 2015. In response to demands for its abolition, George Osborne, then the chancellor, pleaded impotence against EU regulations.

He pledged the government would try to change the rules, and said: “Until that happens, I’m going to use the £15m a year raised from the tampon tax to fund women’s health and support charities.”

Hayes said the women’s sector was starved of resources, on its knees and suffering a “slow drip of a death”. Generalist charities offering services that target at women could not replace specialised providers with well-trained and experienced staff.

“We are the experts. Even when the going gets tough, we’re still in there doing what we’re doing,” she said.

UK Community Foundations received £3.4m to fund its Tribewoman project, to help women with “building skills and confidence, improving health and wellbeing, and building social networks”. Mind received £1.8m to provide mental health peer support for women, and Brook Young People received £1.5m to address period poverty.

Tracey Crouch, the minister for sport and civil society, said: “The money generated from sanitary products is being invested in good causes that tackle the serious issues that women of all ages face. It will be used to support vulnerable women and girls and help build a Britain fit for the future.”

More on this story

More on this story

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