Two thirds of welfare cuts will fall on working families

Nearly two thirds of the £15.9 billion of welfare and benefit cuts announced in the emergency budget and spending review will hit working families, undermining government claims that they are ‘making work pay’, the TUC reveals today (Monday).

TUC analysis of welfare changes for working age people shows that working households will suffer a loss of around £9.4 billion – nearly twice the level of losses for non-working households (£5.9 billion).

The analysis, which breaks down the welfare cuts (as well as welfare increases such as child tax credits and discretionary housing benefit payments) by working and non-working household, shows that 69 per cent of the policies announced in the spending review hit working households, at a cost of £4.5 billion.

The majority of the working age welfare cuts relate to benefits for children so working families will bear the brunt of the cuts, says the TUC.

This research follows a TUC study last week which found that departmental spending cuts will hit the poorest households 15 times harder than the richest 10 per cent, and analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) which found that the tax and benefit changes announced in the budget and spending review were regressive.

With policies such as housing benefit cuts hitting low income households hardest and more than half of all poor children living in working households, the targeting of working households is likely to increase child poverty amongst working families, the TUC says.

Other key welfare cuts such as increasing the rate at which tax credits are withdrawn and reducing the childcare element of working tax credit will also act as a disincentive for low income households to work more hours or gain a second income, directly contradicting the government’s aim of ‘making work pay’, the TUC believes.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘Ministers say that their welfare and benefit cuts are fair and justified because they will make work pay.

‘Polls show that they have already lost the fairness argument. Now we show that it is working families – both the poor and the squeezed middle – who are the big losers from welfare cuts, not the alleged workshy scroungers that the government claims to target.

‘These deep rapid cuts – concentrated on families with children – weren’t in any election manifestos. The speed and scale of the cuts are not an economic necessity, but a political choice. No-one voted for these cuts to their living standards, more child poverty, mass job losses and a ‘get out of tax free’ card for the banks.

‘The government needs to reconsider its spending plans before it causes any more economic damage and pain to working families.’

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Annual working age welfare budget cuts to be implemented by 2014/15 by financial impacts for working and non-working households

Welfare changes by 2014/15	Amount cut (£millions)	Non-working	Working
Total budget cuts	£9,340	£3,946	£5,394
Percentage budget cuts		42	58
Total spending review cuts	£6,549	£2,005	£4,543
Percentage spending review cuts		31	69
Total cuts	£15,889	£5,952	£9,937
Percentage cuts		37	63

A full breakdown of the welfare cuts by working and non-working households is available at www.tuc.org.uk/extras/welfarechangesby2014-15.pdf

Source : TUC  

All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

Public Service Cuts Hurt

Solidarity with PCS (including Jobcentre/DWP Staff) Strike

Members of Defend Welfare Newcastle (including benefits claimants) and Tyne & Wear Left Unity, were joined by a “Fat Cat” when they offered support to striking workers at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).  By attending pickets, and a rally at Newcastle Monument, organised by the PCS Union during their strike on March 8^th and 9^th, they showed their solidarity with workers at the DWP, including Jobcentre staff.

In supporting the strike, Defend Welfare Newcastle wanted to highlight that attacks on the benefits system are also attacks on the workers who staff the benefits system, and that privatisation of jobcentres and the benefits system is bad for both DWP workers and benefits claimants.  In conversations with the striking workers, members of Defend Welfare Newcastle told striking workers about a Claimants’ Union that was being set up on Tyneside, and stressed that this would defend claimants’ rights, and was not against ordinary Jobcentre/DWP staff.

Recent benefits changes force single parents to look for work once their child is 7 (and attend work-focused activity from when their child is 3), make sick and disabled people more ill with stress by forcing them off Incapacity Benefit/ESA and onto Jobseekers Allowance, and are even going to make people “work for their benefits” – for as little as £1.27 an hour.

The Public and Commercial Services Union were on strike in order to prevent their redundancy pay from being cut – which would make it easier for the government to make job-cuts.  Many of the DWP workers are low paid – the basic wage of a clerical assistant is just 24p an hour above minimum wage.

Increased privatisation would lead to redundancies and poor conditions for DWP staff and less face-to-face interaction between Jobcentre workers and claimants (with even more use of call-centres).  As has already been shown by the use of companies like Atos Origins, A4E and Work Directions, privatisation means mistreating (often vulnerable) people claiming benefits in order to make profit for private businesses.

One claimant, who attended pickets and the rally with the group said “I had really interesting conversations with some of the strikers, and hopefully gave them some moral support.  I think it’s important when you’re defending yourself against attacks on your own situation, that you see the links with other people’s situations.  I also took part in the International Womens’ Day celebrations at Monument, and handed out Newcastle Defend Welfare leaflets there, because welfare is a feminist issue, the recent changes have hit single parents particularly badly.  It’s all part of the same system, all an attack on working class people.”

If negotiations are not successful, PCS members will strike again on March 19^th.

Taken from Tyneside Claimants Union

Public Sector Spending Cuts Would Hurt Women Employment In North East England

Deep public spending cuts would lead to heavy job losses for women in the North East and substantially reduce their income in retirement, according to a report published today by the TUC.

The report, Women and the Recession – One Year On, warns that early public spending cuts would hit female employment hardest because 45.9 per cent of women in the North East work in public sector occupations, compared to less than 20 per cent of men. Women working in these areas are most vulnerable to job losses resulting from public spending cuts, the report says.

The North East also has the second highest rate of male unemployment (10.9 per cent) in the UK and the third highest rate of female unemployment (7.4 per cent). In the UK, female unemployment increased by 1.9 per cent during the recession compared to 3.4 per cent for men – a far smaller difference than previous recessions. During the early 1990s recession male unemployment rate increased at nearly five times the rate of female job losses.

Women and the Recession – One Year On shows how female unemployment during the recession has varied greatly between regions. Yorkshire and the Humber has had the biggest increase in women’s unemployment since the start of the recession (+3.1 percentage points), followed by London (+2.8 percentage points) and Wales (+2.2 percentage points). London is the only area of the UK where female unemployment has increased faster than men’s.

The report shows that many areas with a high proportion of female public sector workers also have higher than average male unemployment rates, so spending cuts could leave many families with both parents out of work.

Women and the Recession – One Year On warns that cuts to public sector pensions would also increase the gender divide in retirement income and lead to greater poverty for female pensioners.

Women’s average income in retirement is a third less than men’s, and it would be far worse were it not for the superior record of the public sector in providing decent pensions for women and lower-paid staff, the report says. It warns that women hold nearly two-thirds (64.5 per cent) of defined benefit schemes in the public sector so any cuts to pensions would disproportionately fall on them.

The report shows that women in the public sector are currently doing around £5 billion worth of unpaid overtime a year. With public services already under strain, further job losses would leave staff even more stretched, the report says.

TUC Northern Regional Secretary Kevin Rowan said: ‘Slashing public spending in order to satisfy the right wing of the political spectrum, fiscal hawks and city traders would only cause misery to millions of people who have already suffered from the recession. A fresh wave of public sector job losses could leave many families with both parents out of work and would increase and extend the devastation from the recent recession.

‘The public sector has offered good employment and career opportunities for women in the north east, many of whom choose to work in the public sector because it offers secure work with a good work-life balance and a decent retirement income. It is grossly unfair that these are now all under threat thanks to the mistakes of super-rich bankers, who are already back collecting their bonuses.

‘When politicians talk about the need for deep spending cuts they rarely say how this would affect ordinary working people. But as our report makes clear – women would have to pay for these cuts with their jobs and pensions.’

Taken from eGov Monitor

Jobcentre and Revenue workers on two-day strike

Pickets were out across Wearside today as civil and public servants began a 48-hour strike.

Sunderland Jobcentre and the Riverside House Revenue and Customs call centre were among the locations where members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) were protesting.

Courts, driving test centres, tax offices and job centres will all be hit as part of the industrial action by up to 25,000 people across the region.

It is over changes to the civil service compensation scheme, which unions say will rob staff of tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of a job.

Workers from Durham City’s passport office are also taking part in the strike.

John Cook, Identity and Passport Service branch organiser, said: “With civil and public service jobs increasingly at risk, this is a cynical attempt to cut jobs on the cheap which will ultimately damage the services we all rely on.

“The cuts to the redundancy scheme will see loyal civil and public servants lose tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of a job.”

He added: “The Government claims it cannot prevent bankers’ bonuses being paid because they are contractual, but appears happy to rip up the rights of its own workforce and change the law to do so.

“Strike action is a last resort and we have suggested ways in which the government can make its savings whilst protecting the rights of existing members.

“The Government needs to recognise that it can’t cut jobs on the cheap and reach a negotiated settlement that protects existing members’ rights.”

Thousands of PCS members will gather in Newcastle for a mass meeting after this morning’s picketing, one of more than 20 rallies taking place in towns and cities across the UK.

* In a separate dispute, PCS members from Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services, Washington, are also striking today and tomorrow in a row over pay freezes and job losses.

Those taking part work mainly on IT contracts for the Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Defence and General Motors Services.

Taken from Sunderland Echo

Civil service workers set to strike on 8 and 9 March

The battle is on to stop an assault on civil service workers.

The PCS union is calling on over a quarter of a million workers to strike on Monday 8 March and Tuesday 9 March.

This follows a ballot which saw over 63 percent vote yes for strikes and 81 percent support an overtime ban.

The strikes, which will involve Jobcentre staff, tax workers, coastguards, courts staff and driving test examiners, are a result of the government and Cabinet Office making unilateral changes to the civil service compensation scheme.

The changes being proposed to the compensation scheme will see staff robbed of up to a third of their entitlements and lose tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of a job.

The government is looking to save £500 million through the changes. This is the same government that is failing to address the yawning “tax gap” of £120 billion—money that could be collected if the rich and the corporations paid the right amount of tax.

But that means employing more civil service workers, not fewer.

The battle of civil service workers is part of a much wider one in which the government, backed by the Tories, want workers to pay the price for bailing out the bosses and the bankers.

If the government gets its way it will be much easier to ram though mass job cuts and privatisation in every area.

That means it is vital that the upcoming strike involves as wide a layer of civil service workers as possible, with lively picket lines and demonstrations, but it is also vital that every trade unionist supports them in their battle.

Taken from Socialist Worker

More public sector cuts to come

Lord Mandelson has declared that much of the rest of the public sector will face similar funding cuts to higher education in the upcoming year.

Universities learned last week that their budgets were to be slashed by £449 million for 2010-11, with further cuts due to be implemented in the future.

In a speech at the first Lord Dearing Memorial Conference at Nottingham University yesterday, the Business Secretary said: “Much of the rest of the public sector will receive similar constraints in the course of this year or soon after.

“Public funding cuts are the regrettable cost to the UK of saving the banking sector and getting the country through the recession.”

Lord Mandelson dismissed warnings from Britain’s top university leaders that the higher education system could be “brought to its knees” by government spending cuts which could eventually run into billions.

As university applications hit record levels this year, the Russell Group has warned that students face a desperate scramble for places and tens of thousands could miss out.

Yesterday, Lord Mandelson casually suggested that students who miss out on university places due to the massive cuts should seek “alternatives” to full-time study at a time when youth unemployment is at a record high and skills training is scarce.

University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt condemned the Business Secretary’s “failure to grasp the severity of his planned cuts. Lord Mandelson would be better off listening to the academy’s concerns rather than rudely dismissing them.”

The union has warned that the cuts would put 15,000 higher education jobs at risk.

Taken from Morning Star

900 jobs axed, but Shop Direct will pay new bosses £80k

Shop Direct has launched a search for five £80,000-a-year bosses – just days after cutting 900 call centre jobs on Wearside.

Axed workers today spoke of their anger at the move, which follows the firm’s announcement that it plans to close its former Littlewoods call centre in Commercial Road, Hendon.

It blamed a sharp rise in the number of people shopping online for its decision to close three centres nationwide, with a loss of about 1,500 jobs.

However, it has now followed that up by advertising for five department heads, each paid £80,000-a-year.

Shop Direct workers hit by the closure plans are furious at the move.
Craig Smith, 24, who has a one-year-old son called Max, said: “Their wages are being offset by getting rid of us.

“For one £80,000 job, that is five advisers salaries. For those five jobs that’s 25 advisers they’re getting rid of to pay for it. I’ll be taking this up with the union.”

Neil Fraser, 23, added: “I wasn’t aware that they were doing that… It seems a bit ridiculous.”

Today, Shop Direct claimed that the five positions were vital to meet the company’s “growing demand” in financial services.

A spokeswoman said: “We are advertising a number of roles within our financial services business.

“We have to build our financial services business in order to offer credit products to our customers that will meet this growing demand.”

After the decision on January 28, which also affected sites in Burnley, Oldham and North Wales, Shop Direct entered a 90-day consultation with staff over the closures.

Sunderland Council, regional development agency One NorthEast and other organisations are also joining forces to help staff hit by the announcement to find new jobs.

A special group set up to help met in the city for the first time on Friday.

A number of contact centre companies have been in touch with the council since news of Shop Direct’s plans broke at the end of last week.

Shop Direct, which provides customer services for brands including Littlewoods, Woolworths.co.uk, Great Universal, Kays and Choice, blamed the rise of Internet shopping for a collapse in work for its call centres.

Four years ago, the firm was fielding 33million calls a year. Today, that is down to 19million. Over Christmas, 85 per cent of its business was handled online.

Taken from Sunderland Echo

Report from Right to Work Rally

Manchester is a city with one cathedral; two serious socialist parties – the Socialist Workers’ Party and the Socialist Party; three universities – Manchester, Manchester Met. and Salford University; a handful of veteran anarchist adherents to the Sol. Fed., the Anarchist Fed. and the Northern Anarchist Network; not to mention umpteen local anarcho-climate activists. So many worthy, well meaning people, it is the ideal spot to stage a Right to Work rally like that held last weekend on Oldham Street, Manchester.

Some 600 folk gathered in ‘resistance & solidarity’ to protect us from all manner of wickedness in this world. A Rag-Bag Rally of remarkable pretension and proportions endeavouring to gee-up those of us who’re still either very young, ideologically drunk or incurably naive. A Conference ‘of Resistance & Solidarity’: proclaiming ‘The Only Solution is Revolution’ with minor celebrities on the platform and undergraduates in the audience all loaded with more than a little vain expectations.

Jerry Hicks, unemployed since he was sacked 4 years ago, ran a workshop labelled ‘Stopping the Jobs Massacre’ which might help him advance his campaign for the General Secretary’s job in our biggest trade union: Unite the Union. Will he get it? If he does will he change the union or will the union change him? We must wait and see. In the meantime Jerry offers us a few syndicalist amendments to the status quo: ‘all union officers must be elected’; ‘the union must serve the members not the other way round’; ‘union leaders must lead from the front, as I did on the Staythorpe power station picket last year, when the police broke my leg’ or ‘the solution is workers’ control and revolution’. Stirring stuff delivered in a strained, strangled, shouting bellow to a roomful of about 30. Colin Trousdale, a Manchester electrician and typical English syndicalist, spoke about the blacklist in the building trade and the way the Unite union bosses were dragging their feet rather than fight the victimisation’s.

The SWP bosses, who were running the rally, don’t much like Jerry Hicks since he left their party – hence this workshop was in the equivalent of outer-Mongolia at the Mechanics Institute, well away from the main conference venue on Oldham Street. Because of this I missed the 7 minute speech delivered by Dave Chapple, who alongside Dave Douglass, is probably the most important revolutionary syndicalist in the country. Dave Chapple who was on the platform as President of the National Shop Stewards’ Network and according to reports hammered home an attacked on ballot box politics referring to Wobblies of the American IWW like Bill Heywood, and dismissing the left-wing giddiness associated with the coming General Election; telling the Conference that these days he only bothered to vote in unions elections. Oddly, Ray Morrell of the SWP and NSSN, later told the rally he agreed with what Dave Chapple had said.

The rally produced a ‘wish-list’ and voted to set up a ‘Rank & File’ movement, which will stand in contrast to the NSSN that is based in the existing unions. In the end it is likely that the ‘rank & file’ project will render itself to be little more than a fart in a bottle. The SWP organisers are good at rallies but not so clever when it comes to following through: soon the novelty will wear off and they will be off on some other campaign or venture. We should note the headline in the current Socialist Worker: ‘Be Part of the New Wave of Resistance’. Well it’s part of the DNA of the British left to be always ‘in resistance’ and never to make serious practical proposals for change. The Government and the bosses set the agenda and the trade unions and the left react to it as best they can. This more than anything displays the primitive and immature [if not feeble-minded] state we are in as a political movement.

Taken from Northern Voices

Union bosses demand answers over closure

Union leaders are demanding bosses justify their plans to axe 900 call centre jobs on Wearside.

Shop Direct has announced plans to close its former Littlewoods call centre in Commercial Road, Hendon.

The firm has blamed a sharp rise in the number of people shopping online for its decision to close three centres nationwide, with a loss of about 1,500 jobs.

Officials from the GMB union, which represents workers at the site, met company bosses to demands answers to a number of vital questions over the closure plan.

Regional organiser Mickey Hopper said: “We met with the company and we have put our formal questions to them.

“We have a number of questions we want answers to – we are asking them why Sunderland, why these numbers?”

The union and company will meet again towards the end of next week.

“We have another meeting next Thursday at which the company will come back with their answers,” said Mr Hopper.

“We are asking them about the costs, how many calls come through the centre, the costs of the site itself.

“We do not believe everything they are telling us. We are challenging the company’s information.”

The union was braced for a fight to protect its members jobs or to ensure they got the best possible redundancy package.

“We have made it quite clear to the company that we are not going to go away lightly,” he added.

Yesterday’s meeting was the start of a 90-day consultation period between management and unions over Shop Direct’s plans to close the Sunderland site along with others in Burnley and Newton in Wales.

Sunderland City Council is working with regional development agency One North East to set up a response team to help staff, similar to the group established in the wake of Nissan’s announcement of 1,200 job cuts last year.

Taken from Sunderland Echo