How the budget could fix public services

                                                                    Jeremy Hunt. Image © Richard Townshend The budget takes place next Wednesday and is the Westminster government’s opportunity to take big decisions that would benefit people’s lives, such as investing in public services, improving wages, making the tax system fairer and tackling out-of-control energy bills. But new UNISON research shows that an overwhelming 94.5% of public service workers are not optimistic that it will do any of those things. This is against a backdrop of almost nine in every 10 public service workers (88.1%) finding it harder to pay their household bills than they did six months ago. This financial strain is forcing them to make some incredibly difficult choices: 86% of those surveyed are cutting costs to make ends meet – of whom more than one in 10 (10.5%) have had to use, or plan to use, a foodbank. As well as making cuts, one in five has also taken steps to increase their income, of whom two thirds work overtime, over a third are already working two jobs and a further 24.1% plan to find a second job; 6.5% of respondents have even taken on a third job. The need to find better-paid work is a major factor in the staffing crisis in public services, the survey shows, with a third of those surveyed planning to leave the public sector altogether for a job elsewhere. UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea commented today: “It’s difficult to ...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article News budget Christina McAnea cost of living cost of living survey Source Type: news