Child poverty skyrocketed again last year, as the latest figures published today reveal an increase of 200,000 more children living in households that are struggling to make ends meet. The…Read more…
UNISON vows to tackle poverty across society and the deeply divided society it creates
National delegate conference gets underway with discussion on how to tackle the poverty affecting millions across the UK
The article UNISON vows to tackle poverty across society and the deeply…Read more…
Worrying increase in sanctions against the sick and disabled
Today’s figures revealed that sanctions against Employment and Support (ESA) claimants increased in December to 1,708. This was up by 451 on the previous month. ESA is the out-of-work benefit for people whose illness, health condition or disability makes it difficult or impossible to work. To…Read more…
The Emperor has no clothes. DC Pensions
From Professional Pensions “John Gray looks at whether current contribution levels across DB and DC are adequate.As well as being an employee representative on a pension board I am also a UNISON trade union branch secretary with members in more than 14…Read more…
Earning your own poverty
More working people in the UK are living in poverty than when the global financial meltdown reached its apex nearly eight years ago. Despite an unemployment rate that continues to drop – it is…Read more…
Win for vulnerable children
Last week (25 January) the House of Lords voted by 290 to 198 to keep child poverty targets the same, forcing the government to rethink its plans to abolish them. Back in July, work and…Read more…
Global poverty: our part in its downfall
This week the World Economic Forum (WEF) meets in Davos, and in recognition of the leading role of trade unions, Sharan Burrow, the world’s top trade unionist, is one of the co-chairs this year. So it’s particularly apt that yesterday, Oxfam issued a pre-Davos report showing that trade…Read more…
Invisible children
The Tory government has taken an innovative approach in reducing child poverty. Instead of maintaining a target set by the last Labour government to eliminate child poverty by 2020, it’s…Read more…
A history man’s challenge for the future
Writer and veteran campaigner Harry Leslie Smith looks to the past and shares his hopes – and fears – for the future
The article A history man’s challenge for the future first appeared on the…Read more…
#COP21: Unions call for ‘fair and ambitious Paris agreement’
Trade union delegates at the Paris COP21 joined with others today to protest about the threat to human rights. This includes the rights of indigenous peoples, gender equality, intergenerational equity, a just transition, food security and the integrity…Read more…
Karren Brady: hands off West Ham fans’ tax credits
To: Baroness Karren Brady Stop voting to cut the tax credits that hard working West Ham fans rely on to get by.
Why is this important? I’m a former season ticket holder and lifelong West Ham fan. I was disgusted to see that West Ham’s Vice Chair…Read more…
United Nations takes issue with UK government on human rights, says UNISON
Friday 23 October 2015
UNISON media release, with Human Rights Consortium Scotland (HRCS)
The Westminster Government faces a series of awkward human rights questions following action by the United Nations. The UN has directed the Government to address a ‘list of issues’ ranging from welfare cuts and reliance on food banks to blacklisting and the erosion of trade union rights.
Members of theRead more…
Don’t tell me I have low expectations
By Mary Bousted (first published in Schools Week) Teachers care passionately about their pupils and strive to close the education achievement gap, but their job becomes more difficult as inequality…Read more…
Plunged into poverty
In his address to the Tory Party Conference on Wednesday (October 7), prime minister David Cameron insisted that in order “to make Britain greater”, social problems had to be tackled including the…Read more…
10,900 working families in West Ham to lose out in Tory tax credit “snatch and grab” – 5.2 Million children affected Nationally
A horrifying report is released today by UNISON on the impact of the Government cuts in Tax credits next April. The rise in the minimum wage will not offset these cuts.
Working families and their children who already find it a struggle to survive are about to lose as much as £60 per week. This is…Read more…
Dare To Dream: Shape the future of London
On Tuesday evening I went to the launch of #Daretodream in South London with fellow Newham Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz OBE. This was an amazing networking event for young people on how to shape the future of London. The theme was that politics matters to …Read more…
Into the Tory abyss
It took the Tory-led coalition which took office in 2010 only three years to push another 500,000 children into absolute poverty, according to new figures released today. And it took them only four…Read more…
The most unequal rich country in Northern Europe
Last month the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (the rich countries’ club) published In it Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All. It develops the argument the OECD has been making for some time about the malign economic consequences of inequality, and presents evidence to…Read more…
Queen’s speech: We may have lost a battle – There is still a war to fight
“Where there is discord may we bring harmony. Where there is error may we bring truth. Where there is doubt may we bring faith. And where there is despair may we bring hope.” Remember that…Read more…
UK poverty hits millions
The stark situation for many millions of Britons facing poverty has been outlined by new data from the office for national statistics (ONS). Staggeringly under the last Tory-led government…Read more…