Gransnet forums

News & politics

Tory welfare cuts will impoverish 200,000 children next year and more than 600,00 in 2020

(700 Posts)
Gracesgran Thu 08-Oct-15 21:49:08

The Resolution Foundation has found that Tory welfare cuts will impoverish 200,000 children next year and more than 600,00 in 2020.
Their report can be found here and starts:

Measures announced at the Summer Budget are expected to significantly increase the number of children (and households) living in poverty (households with less than 60 per cent of median income). Despite positive action on low pay, cuts to working age benefits mean that most of this increase is expected to be among those living in working households.

Their worry is that this will go unnoticed because "The Welfare Reform and Employment Bill removes the requirement on Government to meet the 2020 child poverty target established in the Child Poverty Act 2010."

etheltbags1 Fri 16-Oct-15 20:26:02

My driveway is a lump of cement and it will stay that way I love it.

rosequartz Fri 16-Oct-15 20:27:24

Nothing to do with drives Thank goodness!!

Well, I wonder if they have been paying them wrongly for years?
Perhaps they have paid them for all the school holidays; if they are working 30 hours per week the council is now working it out on a 42 hour week so they are entitled to (can someone do the maths?) 3/4.2 of the holiday entitlement?

The same thing happened when I was job-sharing with someone, it was difficult to work out the holidays with the Bank Holidays.

rosequartz Fri 16-Oct-15 20:28:03

My driveway is a lump of cement and it will stay that way I love it. grin

Anniebach Fri 16-Oct-15 20:30:26

Meow

Ana Fri 16-Oct-15 20:30:42

Five weeks holiday is more entitlement than a lot of working people have!

Maggiemaybe Fri 16-Oct-15 21:11:28

I didn't know that any school support staff were paid for weeks they don't work, durhamjen. I worked in school admin for years and like everyone else there who wasn't a teacher, was paid for the 39 weeks I worked, plus an allowance for bank holidays and 4 weeks holiday (rising to 5 after 5 years service). I could claim overtime at my standard rate if I had to go in in the school holidays. I don't see anything immoral or unfair about it.

If school term-time workers in Durham have been paid for weeks they don't work, they've been very lucky.

rosesarered Fri 16-Oct-15 21:30:55

I agree Maggiemaybe.It sounds right.
Now , home James, and don't spare the horses, but do have a care on the drive (way) you ruined the new Cotswold gravel last time.

Maggiemaybe Fri 16-Oct-15 21:32:18

Maybe this is why we live in a terrace with nary a driveway, drive, garage or parking area. wink

durhamjen Fri 16-Oct-15 21:38:16

No, they do not get holiday pay at all. They are paid for the weeks they work.
Councils, not just Durham as you will have realised if you read my original post properly, are reducing their pay by saying that they were paid for 52 weeks, but are not working for 8 of those weeks.
It's good to know that some of you think it is okay to reduce the pay of people who have contracts.
Should single parents, working parents, just like this government wants, have their pay reduced by £200 a month?
I do hope it happens to people you know!

durhamjen Fri 16-Oct-15 21:40:43

Hard to take, I know, ana, but you are wrong. Everyone is entitled to 28 days holiday.

Maggiemaybe Fri 16-Oct-15 21:41:30

I'm afraid I still don't understand, durhamjen. Were they paid for 52 weeks, or were they not?

Elegran Fri 16-Oct-15 21:46:13

Do their contracts say that they are paid for the weeks they work or for 52 weeks?

Elegran Fri 16-Oct-15 21:46:40

Are and/or were.

Anniebach Fri 16-Oct-15 21:53:10

The legal untitlement is 28 days but the employer can choose to deduct the bank holidays from these 28 days

Maggiemaybe Fri 16-Oct-15 21:53:22

By the way, durhamjen, perhaps you should take your own (rude) advice about reading posts properly. Then you will see that I was paid on a term-time only contract for many years. As for "I do hope it happens to people you know!" - well, I know many ex-colleagues who are still paid that way. You seem to think this is unusual. I think it's the norm.

It really isn 't surprising that most people are not keen to join in these threads.

Anniebach Fri 16-Oct-15 21:56:30

Surely if some choose to call their parking area or driveway a drive it's their choice, if it makes them feel good

durhamjen Fri 16-Oct-15 22:06:06

No, they do not have holiday pay. They are paid for the weeks they work.
However, the councils can change their contracts, giving them three months notice.
This is what some councils are doing.
They are changing their contracts to say they are being paid for 52 weeks. But as they are not teachers, they are only allowed 5 weeks holiday, not the 13 weeks which teachers get. Therefore their pay can be reduced by 8 weeks. Nice, eh?
Unison is on the case.
I know quite a few teachers, and quite a few teaching assistants.
If Durham does this, the teaching assistants I know will work to rule, which will please the government because they do not like teaching assistants. However, they do not want to pay more teachers. They want it the cheapest way possible.

When I was a teacher, I sometimes worked on supply. The pay we got was quite high, because we were paid the same amount as we would have been if we had been on a permanent contract, but it was divide by 200, the number of days we would have worked. Our daily pay was higher than it would have been but over the year it was the same.
This is how most teaching assistants are paid, for the days, not the year.

Would you like your pay/pension reduced by £200 a month because someone had found a loophole?

rosesarered Fri 16-Oct-15 22:07:45

Annie, let it go, everybody I know calls it a drive.Calling it a driveway is probably a U.S.thing to do.All their words arrive here eventually.Ours is made of brick paving, not gravel, but it could also be tarmac, whatever it is, it is a drive! It leads from the garage and the house to the road.A drive.

durhamjen Fri 16-Oct-15 22:08:28

"If school term-time workers in Durham have been paid for weeks they don't work, they've been very lucky."

I was responding to this, maggie. I did not say it was just Durham. You did not read my post properly in the first place.

rosesarered Fri 16-Oct-15 22:09:52

Nothing to do with 'making people feel good' just a fact.

Elegran Fri 16-Oct-15 22:11:32

Well, I have found a PDF document from Cumbria which sets out how their pay is calculated, but I am none the wiser. I really can't see how they would get away with cutting their pay by £200 a month.

I get the impression that it is the same amount of money but the hours are calculated differently and the money is spread out differently, but it looks very complicated. I would need to study it for hours and work out some examples to compare with current systems of calculating to make sense of it. Maybe an accountant out there can do it.

I can't give you a link, as it is a PDF, but if you Google the title "Teaching Assistant Term time changes " it will appear at the top of the Google page.

durhamjen Fri 16-Oct-15 22:11:46

Do you thin it is right that anyone on a contract should have their pay cut by £200 a month, which is what will happen?
We are not talking about well paid people here. Someone I know, with a masters degree, and someone else with a PHD, will end up earning just £1 an hour more than the pretend living wage if this goes ahead.

Elegran Fri 16-Oct-15 22:21:32

If I could only work out to muy own satisfaction exactly what a person with a certain number of years experience is earning annually now and what they would be earning when it is calculated differently, and whether they are a full-year person or a term-time only person, then I might have a very slight chance of having something on which to base an opinion.

As it is, I am keeping out of the firing line.

Ana Fri 16-Oct-15 22:22:47

Hard to take, I know, ana, but you are wrong. Everyone is entitled to 28 days holiday.

Really? Everyone, even part-time workers? In addition to Bank Holidays? Goodness, that's a new one on me...

Ana Fri 16-Oct-15 22:34:52

Just as I was about to sue my former employers for breach of their responsibilities re my holiday pay during my employment with them, I noted that there are 8/9 Bank Holidays every year, which they chose to include in the 'holiday allowance'.

I expect public sector workers get Bank Holidays on top of their 28 days entitlement.