The charity Pregnant Then Screwed hit its £15,000 crowdfunding target to launch a legal battle within three days of launching the appeal.
Pregnant Then Screwed launched a crowdfunding campaign with GoFundMe to fund a legal appeal against a High Court decision that it says punishes self-employed women financially for taking maternity leave in the last three years.
Pregnant Then Screwed wants to appeal the High Court’s decision to dismiss its legal challenge arguing that the government’s Covid-19 financial support scheme discriminates against self-employed working mothers.
On 21 January 2021, it brought a judicial review against the chancellor for indirect sex discrimination due to the method used to calculate the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
A statement from the charity crowdfunder page reads: “The scheme unfairly penalises self-employed women who have taken maternity leave in the last three years by including those periods in the average trading profits calculation.
“This has seen approximately 70,000 self-employed mothers receive a far lower SEISS payment than they should be entitled to.”
The judicial review was dismissed by the court, but the charity “believe the judgment is fundamentally flawed and that there are strong grounds for appeal”.
In order to continue its legal battle on behalf of 69,300 new mothers, it needed to raise £15,000 in one week.
Joeli Brearley, founder and chief executive of Pregnant Then Screwed, said: “We are so grateful to everyone who has donated their hard-earned cash to help us appeal this decision. The fact that we raised this money in such a short period of time shows the strength of feeling on this issue. Women have had enough of this government’s gender-blind policymaking.”
The charity's decision to appeal the court's decision comes at a time when Covid-19 has had a disproportionately devastating impact on all women in the workplace.
Brearley said: “Women, mothers, have been forgotten every step of the way during this pandemic, and it’s just not okay.”
Reclaim These Streets raises half a million pounds
Elsewhere, Reclaim These Streets planned to hold a gathering on Clapham Common, centred around a minute of silence to remember Sarah Everard and all women lost to violence.
However, it cancelled this event, citing a lack of constructive engagement from the Metropolitan Police as the reason. Organisers were told they each risked a £10,000 fine.
Campaigners had set up a fundraiser to raise equivalent of what they would have been liable for in fines to donate to supporting women's causes around the country instead.
It will also be donating the remaining funds of its legal costs crowdfunder to this charitable fund.
The goal was £320,000 which is £10,000 for each location where vigils were expected to go ahead. It has so far raised more than £510,000.
