Unequal and gendered: Assessing the impacts of austerity cuts on public service users

Citation

Hastings A, Matthews P & Wang Y (2021) Unequal and gendered: Assessing the impacts of austerity cuts on public service users. Social Policy and Society. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746421000543

Abstract
A decade of austerity has amplified concern about who gets what from public services. The article considers the socio-economic and gendered impacts of cuts to local environmental services which have increased the need for citizens to report service needs and effectively ‘co-produce’ services. Via a case study of a UK council’s decade of administrative data on citizen requests and service responses, the article provides one of the first detailed analyses of the unfolding impact of austerity cuts over time on public service provision. It demonstrates the impact of austerity across the social gradient, but disproportionately on the least affluent, especially women. The article argues for the importance of detailed empirical examination of administrative data for making visible, and potentially tackling, long standing inequalities in public service provision.

Keywords
austerity; public services; co-production; women; inequality

Notes
Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Online

Journal
Social Policy and Society

People

Professor Peter Matthews

Professor, Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology