22 Nov 2017

PCS says today’s budget fails to deliver on public sector pay, Universal Credit or tax evasion.

We had urged chancellor Philip Hammond to act to:

• End the 1% public sector pay cap
• Invest in public services
• End damaging austerity
• Pause and fix Universal Credit
• Invest in HMRC to close the tax gap.

But specifically on pay, Universal Credit and tax evasion he failed to offer anything that seriously addresses ongoing issues. What little the chancellor did offer on pay to some low-paid NHS staff was merely a promise of maybe later, with a commitment to fund a pay rise for NHS nursing staff, but only if negotiations on wider NHS pay reform are successfully concluded.

The Royal College of Nursing warned that the chancellor’s commitment must result in a “meaningful pay rise” for nurses who, along with the vast majority of public sector workers, have had salary increases frozen or capped at a 1% since 2010.

PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka, said in his verdict on the budget that the government’s “abject failure to address the issue of public sector pay sums up this government’s attitude to its own workforce.”

Suspend Universal Credit

PCS had called on the government to pause and fix Universal Credit and while the government announced a £1.5 billion package to cut the waiting period for payments by a week and remove the seven-day waiting period so entitlement starts on the day of the claim these steps are woefully inadequate.

We believe the roll-out of UC, which has been disastrous from the start, should be suspended immediately and serious issues addressed, including the issue of the in-built delay for first payment. We are opposed to the increase in cuts to the system that means UC will be almost £3 billion a year less generous than the system it replaces.

We also believe that the DWP should halt the closure of jobcentres and “back of house” offices, and retrain staff within those sites to perform UC work, while recruiting additional staff to UC. We support the calls for the suspension of further UC roll-out made by many MPs and organisations.

We continue to oppose the huge cuts to the overall welfare budget made by the current and previous government and believe that without investment, both in our social security system, and in the staff who deliver it, the serious problems being faced by both our members and those using the system will worsen.

Missed opportunity to act on tax evasion

Less than 3 weeks after the Paradise Papers exposed the ongoing evasion of tax by billionaires, big business and even politicians, the chancellor’s budget failed to even attempt to tackle the growing inequality between wealthy individuals and ordinary workers.

This could have been a perfect opportunity, with tax avoidance and evasion high on the global agenda, to bring forward measures to tackle the tax gap which in the UK stands at approximately £119bn each year.

Instead the chancellor announced small measures surrounding VAT thresholds, business rates and capital gains tax – but no mention of any political will or concrete measures to deal with the obscenity of what amounts to state sanctioned tax avoidance – set against a backdrop of increased visits to foodbanks and an increase in child poverty.

Have your say on the budget and pay with Mark Serwotka in our Facebook Live event at 7pm on Monday (27).