Staff working at Job Centres in Merseyside are having to claim the same benefits they help process as the cost of living intensifies.
Department of Work and Pensions staff on strike yesterday, part of a mass national walkout featuring a number of unions, told the ECHO how they have faced various “pay cuts” and “pay freezes” over the last 12 years, claiming in some cases to be losing 30% of their pay in real terms. A 2% pay rise has been offered to civil servants, but with inflation in the region of 10%, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has pushed back on this - resulting in yesterday’s huge day of strike action.
A number of picket lines were in place across Bootle, home to a large cluster of Government offices for the DWP, Home Office and Health and Safety Executive. One of the pickets was in place at the Job Centre on Stanley Road.
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Geoff Burns, 65, PCS member and part of the strike action, told the ECHO how a pay rise in April would mean civil servants will still only be on the national living wage, which will be £10.42 an hour. He branded this a “disgrace” and noted how “the Government is prepared to have thousands of employees on minimum wage.”
Geoff said: “In the last 12 years we've had various pay cuts, pay freezes. People have lost on average in real cost terms about 30% of the value of their pay.
"It's built up and built up and now like other unions, we're saying enough is enough."
He added that some job centre staff and DWP workers are currently having to claim Universal Credit alongside their pay, the same benefits that they help to process - something he described as a “paradox”. Moe Braiser, PCS branch secretary, also on the picket line yesterday, said that staff are also having to use food banks due to the rising cost of living.
He added that some staff work part time hours with “good reason”, but can face being “sanctioned” for not increasing their working hours when receiving Universal Credit. A dispute is also ongoing over civil servants’ pensions, which the union claims workers paid too much towards but have not been reimbursed.
Across the region, teachers and Aslef and RMT union train drivers were also on strike yesterday. Workers left their picket lines to join in a march through Liverpool city centre which saw crowds of thousands.
When asked for a response about DWP employees having to claim the same benefits they process, a spokesperson for the Government department said pay demands by the PCS are “unaffordable”.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We greatly value the work of our staff but the PCS Union’s demands would cost the country an unaffordable £2.4 billion at a time when our focus must be on bringing down inflation to ease the pressure on households across the country. Benefits, the state pension and child maintenance payments are paid automatically and people who rely on that support will continue to receive it."
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