On the breadline: We need a pay rise, say Shropshire public sector workers

Katie Clare describes her life as living from hand-to-mouth every month.

"Some weeks I will put only £5 on the gas, and if I don't have gas, I won't be able to cook," she says.

"I won't put the heating on if I don't have to. It hasn't been too cold lately, but I have sat around with hot water bottles and a dressing gown."

Mrs Clare, a care worker with Telford & Wrekin Council, is one of six public sector workers who are asking Telford MP Lucy Allan to meet them to discuss the Government's one per cent pay cap.

The present cap, which affects five million workers including teachers, doctors and soldiers, has been in place since 2012, although this followed a two-year pay freeze, and the cap on pay rises actually dates back to Gordon Brown’s government in 2008.

Earlier this month the Government announced it would be lifting the cap for police and prison officers; with police receiving a two per cent boost and prison officers 1.7 per cent, but if it thought this would placate calls for an end to the squeeze, it will have been disappointed.

Rob Johnston, of the Midlands TUC, says singling out some workers for special treatment would prove divisive.

“Giving pay rises to some but not all not only means pitting public sector against private sector workers, but also setting public sector workers against public sector workers,” he says.

Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, says all public sector workers should get more money, and putting some workers before others would prove divisive.

“We should reject any notion of deserving and undeserving workers,” he says.

“Any attempt by the Government to limit increases to uniformed workers should be rejected by all.”

Mrs Clare, a single mother-of-five, takes home £750 a month from her role caring for youngsters, working a 26-hour week. Her income is topped up by £335 a month in tax credits, and she says at the end of each month she is lucky if she has £35 left.

“I spend £170 a week on food,” she says. “I had to go to the food bank once, I shouldn’t be having to do that, I’m in work.”

Mrs Clare says she cannot afford to pay for school dinners for her children, who have to take sandwiches in instead.

“They feel stigmatised, because they have to sit separately from the children who eat school dinners, it means they can’t eat with their friends,” she says. Two of her children suffer from disabilities.

“Recently my little girl had a letter about a trip to Arthog, but it needed £50 to be paid up-front to secure a space. I didn’t have £50 to give her, I had to say she might be able to go if there’s still space by the time I have saved the money.”

She said her children were also bullied for not having mobile phones.

The 32-year-old also fears that the rent on her four-bedroom home in the Woodside area of Telford will go up as a result of a new charge the council is proposing to put on landlords in the area.

“I have told my landlord that if the rent goes up, I will have to move to a smaller house, but we need the space, one of my daughters needs personal care.”

An IT worker for HM Revenue and Customs, who asked not to be named, says she turned to Citizen’s Advice for help because she was struggling to make ends meet.

“They said I would be better off if I left my job and went onto benefits, but I want to work,” says the 58-year-old, who has worked in the civil service for 17 years.

“My husband is disabled due to having a heart attack and a degenerative back problem, and because I have a mortgage I have to pay insurance for him in case anything should happen to me.”

Another HMRC worker, a 40-year-old administrative officer from Telford, says she often has to choose between feeding her two children, aged 11 and 15, and paying the £50 a month in prescription charges for medication she needs.

“My partner is medically unfit for work, and it means not being able to afford to live,” she says. “I’m 40 years old and I’m having to borrow money from my mum.”

She says financial hardship among civil servants is often hidden, as there is an assumption that they will be comfortably well off.

“A lot of us put on a show of bravado,” she says. “We don’t want people to know that financially we are struggling, we don’t want to admit we are living on the breadline, living hand-to-mouth.

“People assume because we work for the civil service we are well paid, but over the last 10 years we have seen a pay cut in real terms every single year.”

Lee Barron, TUC Midlands Regional Secretary, says a letter was sent to Telford MP Ms Allan’s office on September 9 asking for a meeting so that the six workers could put their case to her. The MP says no such letter has been received, but that she would be happy to meet with them to discuss the matter.

“I have had no request from any constituent to meet to discuss the pay cap,” she says.

“I attended the Royal College of Nurses 'scrap the cap' event in Parliament on September 6, and I met with a number of nurses to discuss their concerns.”

She adds that she has met with representatives of the PCS union to discuss issues affecting Telford public sector workers.

Earlier in the summer, Chancellor Philip Hammond had said public sector workers were, on average, paid about 10 per cent more than those in the private sector once benefits such as pensions were taken into account.

But since then, senior ministers including Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson have hinted that the time might be right to relax the cap.

Mr Gove said he did not believe taxes would have to increase to pay for extra public spending, while a source close to Mr Johnson went even further, saying: “The Foreign Secretary supports the idea of public-sector workers getting a better pay deal and believes the findings of the pay review bodies should be respected.”

At the moment the official line is that pay increase will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis by pay review bodies, but in the meantime the TUC has organised a public rally to be held in Parliament Square on October 17.

All eyes will be on the Chancellor’s autumn budget on November 22.