austerity – Barnsley Community Support Centre

Tag: austerity

24
May
2015

Barnsley says no to Cameron’s cuts

David Cameron graced Barnsley with his presence on Saturday. OK, it wasn’t the real David Cameron, who probably wouldn’t be seen within miles of a town like Barnsley. However, the boos that just a protester in a mask attracted gave a clue to the kind of reception that the real Cameron would attract, if he ever dared to set foot in the town that his beloved predecessor Margaret Thatcher tore the heart from.

It is fair to say that Barnsley has suffered disproportionately from Tory cuts over the last thirty years. Pit closures hang like a pall over the town and now that Barnsley’s current biggest employer, the public services sector is facing further cuts, the future doesn’t look like it is going to get brighter any time soon.

The protest, organised by TUSC, drew together people from a range of groups. The South Yorkshire Freedom Riders (a group formed to campaign for the reinstatement of free public transport for pensioners) were there, as were the Barnsley Green Party, campaigners to save their local Sure Start – Worsbrough Common Rising Stars (sign the petition here), the Socialist Workers Party, NHS employees and a range of trade unions.

Although Saturday’s protest was modest in numbers, it points to the way ahead. We need solidarity across a range of groups if we are to resist cuts to our vital services and build more cohesive, compassionate communities. Movements grow from the ground up. We can’t rely on Westminster to make the changes that we want to see for us.

26
Jan
2015

McCluskey: Syriza’s victory makes hope possible for millions across Europe

categories: Unite the Union

The leader of the UK and Ireland’s largest trade union, Unite today (Monday 26 January) welcomed the victory of Syriza in Greece’s general election, saying it “made hope possible for millions across Europe.”

Commenting Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “This stunning election victory is a tribute to the Greek people who have now firmly rejected the disastrous austerity policies imposed on them by the troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.

“The policies of the troika have done nothing but bring misery and suffering to millions of Greek people. GDP has collapsed by more than 25 per cent, unemployment has soared, wages have been slashed, and welfare provisions and labour protections dismantled. It is no wonder that the suicide rate has risen so dramatically.

“The fight of the Greek people against austerity is the same fight that British, Irish and millions of other working people across Europe are waging against the failed politics that protects the rich and well off at the expense of the poor.

“In voting for Syriza and an end to austerity the Greek people have once again made hope possible for millions of other people across Europe. Unite will watch with great interest the developments in other countries, such as Spain, where anti-austerity parties are also making huge gains, and Unite will continue to play its full part in fighting austerity to make another Europe possible.”

10
Dec
2014

Disabled people vow to continue the fight to save independent living

categories: Unite the Union

DPAC press Release

This morning after weeks of anxious waiting, disabled people and our supporters learned that the high court has found against the latest legal challenge against the government’s decision to close the Independent Living Fund (1). Disabled campaigners vow to continue the fight in every way that we can.

The campaign to save the Independent Living Fund has been one of the most high profile among the many battles disabled people are currently fighting against current government policy that is detrimentally impacting on disabled people, with disabled activists occupying Westminster Abbey gardens over the summer (2).

In November last year the Court of Appeal quashed the government’s decision to close the ILF with the Court of Appeal judges unanimous in their view that the closure of the fund would have an ‘inevitable and considerable adverse effect which the closure of the fund will have, particularly on those who will as a consequence lose the ability to live independently” (3).

On 6^th March this year the then Minister for Disabled People Mike Penning retook the decision and announced a new date of June 2015 for permanent closure of the Fund that provides essential support enabling disabled people with the highest support needs to live in the community when the alternative would be residential care (4).

In October a second legal challenge was heard in the high court brought by disabled claimants claiming that the Minister had not considered any new information to properly assess the practical effect of closure on the particular needs of ILF users (5). The Department for Work and Pensions mounted a defence based on their assertion that the Minister had adequate information to realise that the independent living of the majority of ILF users will be significantly impacted by the closure of the fund.

Tracey Lazard, CEO of Inclusion London said: “The closure of the ILF effectively signals the end of the right to independent living for disabled people in the UK. Whilst never perfect the ILF represents a model of support that has enabled thousands of disabled people to enjoy meaningfully lives and to contribute to society as equal citizens. Since the closure of the Fund to new applicants in December 2010 we have seen disabled people left with their most basic needs unmet and unable to seek employment, to volunteer or go into education or simply even to leave the house.”

Linda Burnip, co-founder of the campaign Disabled people Against Cuts, said: “Regardless of this ruling, disabled people will not be pushed back into the margins of society, we will not go back into the institutions, our place is in the community alongside our family and friends and neighbours and we are fighting to stay”.

For more information or to speak to disabled people directly affected by the Independent Living Fund please contact Ellen on 07505144371 or email mail@dpac.uk.net.

1) For full judgement and press release from solicitors working on the case see: http://www.deightonpierceglynn.co.uk/http://www.scomo.com/terity

2) http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/28/occupy-westminster-disabled-people-against-cuts

3) http://dpac.uk.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/522372-ILF-Briefing-Note-06-11-2013.pdf?bb10e9

4) https://www.gov.uk/government/news/future-of-the-independent-living-fund

5) http://dpac.uk.net/2014/06/breaking-news-2nd-court-case-to-challenge-ilf-closure-launched/

31
Aug
2014

Rickets returns as poor families find healthy diets unaffordable

categories: Britain Needs a Pay Rise, Britiain Needs A Payrise

This article by Tracy McVeigh originally appeared in the Guardian.

The UK Faculty of Public Health will call for national food policy including sugar tax as concerns rise over vitamin deficiencies.

Poverty is forcing people to have dangerously poor diets and is leading to the return of rickets and gout – diseases of the Victorian age that affect bones and joints – according the UK Faculty of Public Health.

The public health professionals’ body will call for a national food policy, including a sugar tax, as concerns rise over malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies in British children. It will also appeal for all political parties to back a living wage to help combat the illnesses.

Doctors and hospitals are seeing a rise in children suffering from ailments caused by poor diet and the faculty has linked the trend to people’s inability to afford quality food. Latest figures show there has been a 19% increase in people hospitalised in England and Wales for malnutrition over the past 12 months but experts say this is only the extreme end.

Dr John Middleton, from the FPH, said the calls would come in the faculty’s manifesto to be published next month and warned that ill-health arising from poor diets was worsening throughout Britain “through extreme poverty and the use of food banks“.

He said that obesity remained the biggest problem of food poverty as families are forced into choosing cheap, processed high fat foods just to survive. “It’s getting worse because people can’t afford good quality food,” he said. “Malnutrition, rickets and other manifestations of extreme poor diet are becoming apparent. GPs are reporting rickets anecdotally in Manchester, the East End of London, Birmingham and the West Midlands. It is a condition we believed should have died out.

“The vitamin deficiency states of gout, malnutrition being seen in hospital admission statistics are extreme manifestations of specific dietary deficiencies or excesses, but they are markers of a national diet which is poor. Food prices up 12%, fuel prices up double-figure percentages and wages down is a toxic combination, forcing more people to eat unhealthily.”

He said many policy makers forgot the impact of rising energy prices on diet. “That is the bit people dont really appreciate – a processed meal from a supermarket will need less feeding the meter as of course will a fast food take out. Poor people are having to pay out more of their income on food compared to the better off. There are difficult choices for people on low income.”

Carmel McConnell, founder of the Magic Breakfast charity, which provides a free breakfast to 8,500 British schoolchildren in need each morning, said teachers in the schools she worked in expected to see a dramatic decline in the health of their pupils as they return after the holidays: “Teachers tell us they know even with free school meals it will take two to three weeks to get their kids back up to the weight they were at the end of the last school term because their families cannot afford the food during the holidays.”

McConnell and Middleton both welcome the Nick Clegg-led intiative to start universal free school meals in schools for younger children, although critics are claiming that schools, already facing a dire shortage of places, may find it difficult to accommodate when the scheme is rolled out later this week.

The UK has 3.8 million children in extreme poverty. Charities such as the Trussell Trust report growing need for food banks but say that some of the items donated can be of poor quality.Dr Middleton said: “If the nutritional diseases are markers of a poor diet, the food banks are markers of extreme poverty – the evidence from Trussell Trust suggests the biggest group of users are hard working poor families who have lost benefits, live on low and declining wages and or they have fallen foul of draconian benefits sanctions which propel them into acute poverty and hunger. This is a disastrous and damning indictment on current welfare policy and a shame on the nation. The food banks are providing a real and valued service staving off actual hunger – they are actually keeping people alive.”

31
Aug
2014

Morale at all-time low

categories: Britain Needs a Pay Rise, Britiain Needs A Payrise

This article by Molly Barker originally appeared on UNITElive.

Why are Unite NHS members so angry about their pay? We look at what they do and how much these hard working, highly skilled workers actually earn. Today we focus on admin, ambulance and psychology staff.

Unite represents 100,000 NHS workers, from biomedical scientists to maintenance workers to nurses. Austerity measures put in place by the coalition government are seriously damaging NHS employees, while Cameron and his cronies privatise our national health service.

Administrative and clerical workers

Administration workers provide essential support to front-line NHS workers. To progress in their career they usually need to go on courses, such as those available from the institute of leadership and management. They can earn as little as £16,271.

One admin worker told us, “Staff morale is at an all-time low, I don’t think people realise how hard people work in the NHS and how poorly paid they are and how actually they are treated.”

Another one said, “I have recently been down-banded and gone from working full time to part time and now can’t afford to maintain a home. As a single parent this is extremely stressful.”

Ambulance staff and paramedics

For the ambulance service to work, many staff are needed, from taking calls to driving vehicles. Ambulance staff usually start on a salary of £14,294.

Paramedics need to complete a two year degree and must have a driver’s license, and some need an additional qualification to drive larger vehicles. They have to complete paramedic training.

Paramedics need to be able to use equipment such as defibrillators to resuscitate patients. They work unsociable hours, and also have to deal with upset or sometimes aggressive relatives of patients. Their pay begins at £21,478.

“I used to enjoy my work but changes in the whole system of work and work place has had a very serious effect on most of the staff,” one ambulance work told us.

“I feel totally worthless and apathetic regarding doing my job. I still try to maintain my professional skills but I feel it’s time to leave.”

“Front line services are been affected by the changes that are having to be made,” another worker said. “Staff morale is the lowest I can remember in my 34 years in the NHS.”

Clinical Psychologists

Clinical psychologists need a degree in psychology, as well as further training. Trainee clinical psychologists earn from £25,783 and earn from £30,764 once they have completed their training.

One member spoke of his frustration with the current situation, and warned psychologists could leave for the private sector.

“I am concerned that down-banding, reduced pay compared to inflation, reduced pension entitlements etc. will mean that senior healthcare professionals who are able to, and who are very good at their jobs, will increasingly work privately.

“I am beginning to see this in psychiatry, where consultant psychiatrists are going part-time and doing more private work, and staying fewer days in the NHS. My worry is that, in the future, those who can make a success of it privately will do so.”

27
Aug
2014

Austerity drives increase in vulnerable families

categories: Britain Needs a Pay Rise, Britiain Needs A Payrise

This article by Hajera Blagg originally appeared in UNITElive.

Unite calls for more health visitors to support families in crisis.

The number of families needing additional support has sky-rocketed from 120,000 to 500,000, as the government’s austerity agenda further drives parents and their children into financial hardship.

David Cameron’s speech highlighting so-called “troubled families” called for an extension of his 2011 scheme set up in the wake of the riots. Despite Cameron lauding the Troubled Families scheme a success, the National Audit Office said in December 2013 that the scheme was “underperforming” as a result of poor departmental coordination and the risks run from setting up the scheme too quickly.

Unite calls on an incoming Labour government to rapidly expand the number of health visitors to tackle the rise of families needing additional support. The union supports the Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association (CPHVA) recommendation of 250 caseloads per family, whereas the government’s current goal of 4,200 health visitors by 2015 translates into 276 caseloads per family.

Unite head of health Rachael Maskell criticised Cameron’s ‘smoke-and-mirrors’ approach in his speech on the importance of families.

“The increase in the number of families needing additional support is a reflection of the austerity-driven agenda of the government, which has seen the closure of more than 600 Sure Start centres and the reduction in services at many more,” Rachael said.

“This has been compounded by the slashing of mental health services,” she added. “There has been a 20 per cent cut by ministers, including children and adult mental health services. This means specialists not being there to support families in need of help.”

Unite member Joyce Still, who has worked as a health visitor for the past 30 years, agrees that austerity cuts are directly related to the rise in families needing greater support.

“My job is to support and encourage family health,” she said. “But in the last few years, health visitors have become glorified social workers.”

Joyce, who works in an area in southeast England usually considered affluent, says she now finds herself arranging tokens for families to use at food banks. She also explains how the many domestic violence cases she attends often start as arguments over finances.

“I definitely object to Cameron’s ‘troubled families’ rhetoric,” she said. “He’s labelling and stigmatising people who are struggling to cope precisely because of his government’s policies.

“We definitely need many, many more health visitors, but we need to make sure newly-qualified visitors get the support they need,” Joyce added. “Many new to the profession are immediately overwhelmed by the caseloads and the stress. If we had more health visitors, we could actually do more of the work that we are trained to do.”

Rachael emphasised the obstacles an incoming Labour government faces in supporting vulnerable families.

“With a 400 per cent increase in the number of families they are expected to support, there is a serious shortfall in the health professionals to carry out the necessary work of supporting these families,” she said.

“Increasing the number of health visitors will be a difficult task, but necessary given the woeful legacy of this government’s austerity programme and its adverse impact on vulnerable families.”

24
Aug
2014

Community empowerment

categories: Unite Community

This article by Rae Passfield originally appeared in Unite Live.

Unite Community is really making a difference.

Hopelessness stifles a community like a thick fog. It creeps through the streets clouding the doors and windows of all the houses it reaches. When hopelessness starts to consume many houses in a community, the spirit of the people inside them is weakened and they become trapped and fearful, unable to see any alternative before them.

But an alternative is organising right outside – and with it comes hope. Traditionally unions campaign for rights in the workplace, but Unite have brought this support to your door, offering unionised membership locally through Unite Community.

Its projects serve to drive energy back into neighbourhoods, breathing life into people who are immobilised by austerity and re-engaging the dispirited into actively fighting back.

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner explains, “It’s about empowering people who are bearing the brunt of a crisis they never created. Giving them a voice, an opportunity to stand up and benefit from the solidarity that can be gained from standing together.”

Unite Community projects are building momentum in every corner of the country, having already won countless campaigns including saving youth centres, protecting local jobs, supporting food banks, opposing the payday lender loan sharks and backing members in their fight against the Bedroom Tax.

“We have over 7,000 inspiring members of our Community initiative and they bring a new vitality and energy that we’ve not seen before in our union for many years” Steve continues.

“These are people who have been failed by a political class that has no understanding of the lifestyles they are expected to live in austerity Britain today.

“As time progresses our industrial membership will engage more with our community campaigns and so we’ll build an army of activists. Unite Community is not an annex; we are an integral part of our union.”

The union support has particularly resonated in Northern Ireland where a Unite Community project has saved lives.

Tragically at the end of last year ten young people were so consumed with despair that the only option they could see was to take their own life.

The Community branch in Belfast responded by offering a training programme that taught people to be able to identify signs of depression and suicide, giving them the tools to protect and support each other and restoring some union to a largely divided city.

Jimmy Kelly, Unite regional secretary for Ireland said of the suicide programme, “I can only imagine the grief that comes into a family after a suicide but we hope that this initiative can help to get them get to the next step in rebuilding their lives.

“These sons and daughters felt they had no hope, no future, and that taking their lives was the only option. It is vital that we can send a message to other young people that they are not alone, there is a collective here and there is always a way forward, and Unite Community is helping to build that for them.”

It is also changing people’s lives. Unite Community members become courageous, bold activists. Inspiring each other to stand up for their families and community, and bring positive change to their hometowns.

By standing together, communities can stand stronger. The success of Unite Community so far has proven that, and its future is certainly full of potential. At its heart, its projects empower people to not be afraid to use their voice and together walk through the fog into the clarity of hope.

22
Aug
2014

Food spending falls for first time as stores compete and real wages drop

categories: Britain Needs a Pay Rise, Britiain Needs A Payrise

The article by Angela Monaghan originally appeared in the Guardian.

Britain’s food bill drops for first time as supermarkets wage price wars and consumers fail to feel effects of economic recovery.

Spending in food stores fell for the first time on record in July amid intense competition between Britain’s biggest supermarkets – while consumers have yet to feel the benefit of recovery in their pockets.

Britons spent £11.7bn on food during the month, a 1.3% drop compared with July last year. It was the first annual fall in the value of food sales since the Office for National Statistics started collecting the data in 1989. The volume of food sales was also down last month, by 1.5% on an annualised basis.

The ONS put the fall in the value of food sales down to “prolonged discounting and price wars”. Britain’s leading supermarkets have all slashed prices on basic items to fight off competition from Aldi and Lidl, the German discount food chains that have become increasingly popular among cash-strapped UK shoppers.

At the same time, a prolonged fall in real wages has encouraged consumers to shop around more for bargains, opting for cheaper alternative products such as own-brand labels, and buying fewer premium-brand goods. Consumers are also focusing on wasting less food, buying little but more often.

Neil Saunders, managing director at retail consultancy Conlumino, said the unprecedented fall in July was significant. “It is an indication of the issues occurring in the food and grocery market at the moment. We have too many players chasing not enough sales.

“[The drop] is significant because it underlines the real pressure within that segment of the market, and it underlines an economic shift in the way the industry works. That’s obviously very painful for some of the players in that market.”

Prices in UK food stores were 0.2% higher than a year ago – the lowest food-price growth rate since December 2004. Prices of goods sold across the retail sector were 0.9% lower than a year ago, the strongest rate of deflation since 2009.

Britain’s economic recovery looks increasingly established, with growth outpacing that of its G7 peers and an increase in gross domestic product of 0.8% in the first and second quarters of this year. Nevertheless, household budgets remain under pressure as workers’ real pay has fallen for the majority of the past six years.

Consumers are also braced for higher borrowing costs, as the Bank of England moves closer to increasing interest rates for the first time since March 2009.

Saunders said prospects for Britain’s retail sector overall remained mixed. “It is a very competitive sector at the moment and, although there is a genuine economic recovery, it is not filtering through to consumers as much as retailers would like. People are still very cautious about spending. It is not a bad picture for retail, but it is mixed.”

He said that a strong housing market was boosting some areas of the sector, including homeware and DIY goods.

The ONS data showed the volume of retail sales rose by 0.1% over the month in July, disappointing City expectations of a stronger rise of 0.4%. Growth was held back by sales of fuel and household goods, which both fell in July.

It slowed the annual rate of growth to an eight-month low of 2.6%, and could be a sign that economic growth is moderating, according to John Hawksworth, chief economist at accountancy firm PwC. However, he said it was too soon to be clear whether it was a sign of things to come. “Retail sales data can be erratic, so we should wait for more evidence before concluding that the recovery is running out of steam.”

Once fuel sales were stripped out, the volume of retail sales grew by 0.5% on a monthly basis in July. Samuel Tombs, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, said it was an encouraging sign of resilience among consumers.

“July’s retail sales figures provided reassurance that consumers are still willing to spend more even though an interest-rate hike is looming.” Tombs said a 3.3% fall in fuel sales in July was probably down to a rise in prices during the month and should prove to be temporary.

“Oil prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks, suggesting that pump prices will fall back soon,” he said.