Calculating COVID's impact on women's financial health

Calculating COVID's impact on women's financial health

From the impact of early access to super to the increased risk of economic abuse during lockdown, COVID-19 is eroding women’s economic and financial equality, experts warn.

Gender super gap

The policy implications of early access to super during the pandemic could significantly widen the super gender gap, according to the Associate Dean of Finance in the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, Associate Professor Banita Bissoondoyal-Bheenick.

Among the Federal Government's various stimulus packages, it announced a temporary measure allowing individuals facing severe financial stress due to the pandemic to access their superannuation before retirement of up to $10,000 in the 2019-20 tax year, and another $10,000 in 2020-21 (from 1 July to 24 September 2020).

“The policy is likely to have implications for the retirement balance of those who choose to access their super early, but more so for women,” Bissoondoyal-Bheenick says.

Women currently retire with 47% less superannuation than men in Australia, with the early withdrawal likely to further exacerbate this gender gap.

“Analysis of data released by the ATO and AMP indicates that the policy has not undertaken distributional analysis by gender.

While it will be a while before the full effects of COVID-19 on women’s finances are known, the sectors most severely affected are dominated by women in the workforce.

“The Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that 325,000 women became unemployed in April, which is 55 % of all jobs lost in Australia, while female work hours reduced by 11.5 %, compared to a 7.5 % reduction in male hours," she says.

At the same time, 70% of those employed in the health and social work sector are women and fall into the lower income earning groups of society.

“The higher rate of job losses by women, coupled with early withdrawal of super, could leave many women’s long-term super balance at a bare minimum or simply being eroded completely,” she says.  

Economic abuse     

Supriya Singh is an Honorary Professor in the Graduate School of Business and Law and warns an impending "tsunami of economic abuse reports threatens to flood services once women can safely seek help.”

As an expert in economic and financial abuse and its impact on migrant women in Australia, Singh fears it will become overwhelming during restrictions, including among migrant communities.

“COVID-19 restrictions have further entrapped women and children suffering family violence, locking them in with their abuser,” she says.

“We know that economic fragility increases abuse while decreasing women’s options of surviving alone.

“Migrant women experiencing family violence will be even more vulnerable as their families overseas are unable to give them face-to face support.

Isolation, fear and entrapment are key elements of coercive control, which is at the centre of family violence.

Coercive control plays out as an insidious pattern of behaviours used by perpetrators to control and entrap their victims, including psychological and financial abuse.

While “coercive control was criminalised in England and Wales in 2015 and in Ireland and Scotland in 2019,” it’s not a crime in Australia, Singh explains.

“COVID-19 has led to increased calls from women experiencing family violence, however, more worrying is the silence of women who are trapped and cannot reach out for help,” she says. 

 

Story: Diana Robertson

03 August 2020

Share

03 August 2020

Share

  • Business
Engage

Related News

A person is on their bed in the dark with their knees bent towards their chest, clutching their face with their hands in distraught.

Sexual assault survivors deserve a gold standard reporting experience

A world-first report examining alternative ways for victim-survivors to report sexual assault says under-reporting could be reduced if moved away from law enforcement, but it will need greater support and funding to be sustainable and secure.

A bunch of teenagers taking a selfie with a smartphone.

Aussie teens are not actually selfie-obsessed

A new study zooming in on how smartphones influence our photography habits found Australians aged 20 to 40 years old take more selfies than teenagers and older Australians.

Tide-RMIT-1-THMB.jpg

Aussie tech breakthrough to protect critical infrastructure from cyber attacks

A cutting-edge collaboration between tech startup Tide Foundation and RMIT University is translating ground-breaking research into homegrown cybersecurity capability.

Slovenia.jpg

Global learning award winners: Online courses for sustainable, inclusive and beautiful cities

Short online courses by RMIT Europe, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Community, EIT Urban Mobility and the New European Bauhaus (NEB) have been named winners in the 2023 LearnX Awards.

Show more
aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

More information