The Phony War is Almost Over

The budget has taken place & the potential impact on PCS members will be huge.

The changes will hit the poorest hardest with cuts in benefits and inevitable cuts in services from government and local authorities.

For PCS members we face a pay freeze (even the protection for the lowest paid is a below inflation rise), attacks on our pensions and a 25% cut in departmental budgets will inevitably result in job cuts.

Locally the pause in the TPIP rollout is not necessarily a good thing. We could stay as we are, but on the other hand TPIP could still roll out or, even worse we could be left high and dry with nothing.

Big savings could be made by closing offices, especially with the governments keenness for privatisation to enable this, and no office is safe.

I also have no words of comfort for fraud or CMEC members.

I don't want to be a scare monger but until we know the detail of what we up against it is difficult not to speculate.

This period while we await these attacks on members I have taken to calling the phony war as the actual battles for services, jobs, pay and conditions are still to come.

We need to take this opportunity to prepare for what is to come.