Dan Smart, Social worker in adult care and Unison secretary in South Gloucestershire (personal capacity)
As 70,000 striking workers marched in London on 15 March, Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt was announcing more taxes for ordinary people and tax giveaways for the wealthiest.
What a kick in the teeth to those struggling to keep public services afloat to hear that, on top of everything, they will now have to pay more for crumbling services, while the rich are helped to dodge even more tax.
Under the Tories’ plans, the tax-free allowance on pensions will be raised from £40,000 to £60,000, and the £1 million lifetime tax-free allowance will be abolished entirely.
The Tories are attempting to dress this up as encouraging older workers back into the labour market. But Hunt can’t hide that this is really a transfer of wealth to those at the top, worth billions.
For the rest of us, income-tax thresholds and tax-free allowances have been frozen. This means that 1.7 million people, who have been hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis, will now start having to pay. Those on the lowest incomes will soon be paying £800 per year more.
I work for a local council as a social worker. We have had the worst pay growth of any section of workers. A survey by our local Unison branch showed that two thirds of our members frequently or occasionally have difficulty with living costs.
This budget served to aggravate the perfect storm of rapidly eroding pay, staff shortages, and the retention crisis. Vital services will continue to be cut – not just to the bone, but into the bone! This budget increases taxes for the majority, and still means a 10% cut in government spending.
This is why Unison in South Gloucestershire has just balloted social workers and occupational therapists for strike action, with an emphatic 94% voting ‘yes’. We also smashed the anti-union turnout thresholds. Our strike committee just met to plan several strike days in April.
The spark for this action is being underpaid compared to neighbouring councils. We’re paid £3,000 less than local social workers for children, although we have the same qualifications and work in the same offices!
Social care workers, like many low-paid workers, are ready to join the fightback. We won’t be made to pay for tax cuts for the rich, while our own taxes and bills soar, and pay and quality of services plummets. It’s time the super-rich were made to pay instead.
