Graph of the week - the National Living Wage con

This week George Osborne revealed his Budget and made much pay of introducing a new so called National Living Wage, which will start at £7.20 an hour in April. 

Apart from this being lower than the actual real Living Wage (£7.85 outside London and £9.15 in London) set by The Living Wage Foundation, it only applies if you are over 25. 

But the con does not stop there. At the same time as the National Minimum Wage effectively being raised to £7.20 the government will be reducing Working Tax Credits so despite the wage rise, low paid workers will be worse off. The graph above shows this clearly (hat tip for the graph to UNISON Scottish Organiser, Dave Watson).
 

Budget shuts public sector workers out of the recovery

Responding to the Chancellor’s Budget Statement today (Wednesday) Ravi Subramanian, UNISON West Midlands Regional Secretary said:

 

“Capping wages at a miserly one per cent for four more years for public sector workers will hasten the reluctant exit of many dedicated staff from our hospitals, schools and local councils.

 

The economy is growing yet public servants remain shut out of the recovery.

 

Despite bearing the brunt of austerity, they are to keep paying the price for the reckless behaviour of the banks.Britain won’t have public services fit for 21^st century needs, unless wages for public servants are high enough to attract the best recruits.

 

Pay austerity might be over for MPs but it’s set to continue for many more years for everyone else in the public sector.An hourly rate of £7.20 is not a living wage. George Osborne’s announcement might look attractive at first glance but as tax credits are cruelly snatched away – leaving many workers £1,200 worse off – he’s simply giving to the low-paid with one hand and taking away with the other.

 

An independently set living wage already exists, and its higher rate assumes the full take up of in-work benefits. Renaming the minimum wage will mean fewer employers will feel obliged to pay staff any more than the law requires them to.”

 

Graph of the week - this government broke the economy

The government claims that the economy was contracting when they came to power in May 2010, but the graph above shows the economy contracted after the global banking crash and started growing in 2009. The dip in economic growth comes after the first two of George Osborne's budgets.

It was this government that stalled the economic recovery after the global crash.

With a hat tip to Paul Mason on Twitter @paulmasonnews

Graph of the week - Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK and EU

The above graph is from a report from the Office of National Statistics that looks at poverty and social exclusion across the EU. The graph shows the percentage of each country's population that is at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

It is worrying that the UK, which is third richest country in the EU after Germany and France is only better than the EU average. It seems we are "all in it together."

For more info download the whole report here.

Graph of the week - In work poverty in the UK

This graph from the Office of National Statistics report on Poverty and Employment Transitions in the UK and EU, 2007-2012 clearly shows that despite the UK being the third richest nation in the EU (after Germany and France) we rank 16th for in-work poverty and are only just bellow the EU average.

This is a statistic the government should be profoundly ashamed about.

Graph of the week - The Rise of Zero Hours Contracts

Zero hours contracts have been in the news a lot over the past few months, and the government have been claiming economic success with more people in employment. But is this telling the whole story?

We grabbed the data from the ONS website and knocked up a quick graph. In 2013 there was a big jump of over 300,000 additional people on zero hours contracts. So these people may be off the unemployment register, but they are not in decent, secure full-time employment.

Hardly the job creation miracle that some are claiming.

Graph of the week - Tax Revenues by Country

With all the controversy about tax avoidance and evasion we thought it would be interesting to see how the UK’s tax revenue compared with other countries.

So we went to the OECD website, found some data for 2013, downloaded it, and then did a graph.

The graph above shows the tax revenue in dollars per capita. The UK is highlighted in blue. It shows that relative to other countries the per capita tax revenue is low. The graph shows that comparatively speaking the UK is not a high tax country in terms of tax revenue. So it's no wonder we are seeing such savage cuts to public services.

It is not possible to say conclusively that this because of tax avoidance and evasion, but it does leave you wondering.....

Graph of the week - is the change in council spending power a political fix?

Just before Christmas the central government grants to councils in England were announced, with the minister saying there was a funding cut of only 1.8% to councils. But as with everything with this spin obsessed government, the devil is in the detail.

The 1.8% figure looks at all 354 councils, but 200 of those councils are (small) district councils that make up less than 6% of total council spending. Hence the 1.8% average cut figure is achieved by including these councils with very small budgets, so the 1.8% figure is a gross distortion.

So if we only look at the 154 large councils (London Boroughs, Metropolitans, Unitaries and County Councils) this actually makes up over 94% of all spending by councils and it gives a far more realistic picture.  

The graph above shows the cut for each of these large councils, and the colour of the bar shows which party controls that council. Note the clear picture that the largest losers are mainly (red) Labour councils, and the gainers are mainly (blue) Tory councils.

Is this a political fix? Take a look at the graph, and decide for yourself.

Notes: 

1. Due to space limitations on the vertical axis not every council is labelled but every council is shown by a  coloured bar.

2. To see the actual figures for every council, look at the spreadsheet used to create the graph which can be found here: http://bit.ly/1z2vT9w

Graph of the week - Government borrowing predictions are way off

This week's Autumn Statement from the Chancellor George Osborne exposed what a mess he is making of the economy, and the graph above illustrates just one of the many things he has got wrong.

In 2010 he said that austerity would work and drive down government borrowing. The blue bars show his 2010 forecast for driving down government borrowing. But austerity strangled the economic recovery and we had a double dip recession, which meant income from taxes dropped off. And in turn that meant borrowing had to go up to plug the gap.

The red bars shows the actual borrowing that has happened and shows clearly George Osborne has got it badly wrong.

Graph taken from an article on the Independent website here.

Public Service Workers paying the Price of Austerity

Commenting on the Chancellor's Autumn Statement,  Ravi Subramanian, UNISON West Midlands Regional Secretary said:

"It is sickening that Osborne is once again expecting public service workers to work more for less and pay the price of his failed plan to revive the economy. Austerity has not worked and despite this the Government is going ahead with more cuts which will inevitably mean more pay freezes.

There is nothing in his statement that will support workers and the lowest-paid.Nothing to help the million of public sector workers who have seen the value of their pay fall by at least 10% since this coalition came to power.

Workers are paying the price of austerity while the rich and privileged share the benefits. The Government has nothing but contempt for the hardworking people in this country. The truth is four years of austerity has caused untold damage to the economy, to the public services families rely on and to the daily lives of millions of people. 

An increasing number of full time public sector workers have to borrow money every months and rely on second jobs to survive.And the rise of precarious jobs is hardly something to be proud of. More people work part-time because they can't find full-time jobs, more people are on precarious zero-hour contracts.

The recovery the Government has been boasting about is still not being felt by workers. A recovery that only benefits the few privileged in this country is no good for the economy and for workers. The economy is not safe and nor are workers whose jobs are increasingly insecure.

The hardest-hit are communities and the most vulnerable, This was the Government's last chance to reverse the cuts. They will now pay the price at the next election.

West Midlands holds it breath for autumn statement

The West Midlands region has been badly affected by this government’s failure to deal with the economy and they repeatedly try to tell us that things are getting better and we are all in this together, but where is the evidence for this?


As the country holds it breathe in anticipation for today's autumn statement UNISON members are wondering if finally they will benefit from the so called recovery.


Ravi Subramanian, UNISON West Midlands Regional Secretary said:


“UNISON members and the public as a whole across the west midlands are fed up of this government’s failure to deal with the economy and support hard working families. This will be the chancellors forth attempt at reviving the economy and his last chance to ditch austerity and stand up for hard working people.


All they've announced so far is recycled money. Existing money which was already allocated and budgeted for, not additional funding. Instead of investing and improving the NHS, this Government opted for a damaging £3bn top down reorganisation that the public did not vote for.


Their approach to public spending has been a disaster. The plan did nothing to reduce the deficit and left our public services in dire straits. Hundreds of thousands of public-service workers lost their jobs and the promise to cut the deficit not the NHS was just empty words.


But in a desperate attempt to avoid negative headlines months before the general election, the Government will try to use the same tricks again.


Everything UNISON Said in 2010 has been proved right. It is obvious the government's plans on the economy did not work: it did not reward workers, it penalised them; it did not protect the most vulnerable, it put them and more rise - and it certainly was not fair"

Graph of the week - deficit is due to reduced taxation not too much spending

This week's graph of the week comes from The Resolution Foundation's report In The Balance: Public Finances in the Next Parliament. It is figure 15 on page 36.

What this graph clearly shows is:

1. The massive deficit in public sector finances that happened in 2008 was not because of an increase in spending, but due to a huge fall in tax receipts because of the recession caused by the global banking crash.
2. There has been a levelling off in spending in absolute terms, but given that this does not include inflation and increased demands due to an ageing population this actually amounts to massive cuts to services.
3. The best way to fix the deficit is to increase tax receipts so they match spending.

The best way the government can do this is to:

• have an economic plan that delivers good well paid jobs (as oppose to the zero hours low paid jobs that currently exist) so that workers then pay income tax and VAT and help build tax receipts.
• reverse the cut to the 50p tax rate for high earners.
• ensure that tax dodging companies like these pay their fair share

Spending cuts that hit the poor and the vulnerable are unnecessary and avoidable. There is a better way to close the deficit.

Birmingham Diwali Celebrants say no to austerity

Over 270 people at the Birmingham Diwali celebrations on Sunday 18 November signed our anti-austerity postcards asking their local MP to lobby the government to end their damaging policy of austerity.

UNISON (West Midlands) are determined to take our camapign out in to all parts of our communities and it's clear from the event on Sunday when we do, we find lots of people support us.

Birmingham says "no to austerity"

Yesterday UNISON we were out and about in Birmingham city centre taking our anti-austerity campaign to Brummies.

Over 400 people signed our postcards lobbying their local MP for an end to austerity. And we also got 8 people who joined UNISON on the day.

Day by day more and more people are saying they've had enough of austerity.

UNISON anti-austerity campaign hits Solihull

Today UNISON (West Midlands) took our anti austerity campaign to Solihull. Like the people of Cannock, the people of Solihull are keen to sign up our campaign to fight the government's failed austerity measures.

UPDATE: over 350 people signed our anti austerity postcards and we even had one person join UNISON.

Campaigning in Cannock Chase

Despite the rain, 10 regional office staff turned up in Cannock today to campaign for decent public service,s as a follow on from the 20 October Future That Works march in London.

The people of Cannock Chase are keen to sign our petition against Staffordshire County Council's proposed privatisation of education support services.

UPDATE: over 500 people signed up to our campaign!

One of our favourite blogs no 1

One of our favourite blogs is False Economy - a great site that shows the devastating impact and false economy of the government's failed austerity measures.

The site is run by Clifford Singer, the person who brought us all the wonderful My David Cameron website.

Check it out - it is well worth a read.

UNISON says - time for Plan B Mr Osborne

Responding to reports that government borrowing increased in July, while tax receipts dropped in the same period, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said:

It beggars belief that this Tory-led government persists with a cuts and austerity agenda that is patently not working and is doing far more harm than good. This increase in borrowing and declining tax receipts is more evidence that the cuts agenda is the wrong way to go about solving the UK’s economic woes, the stagnating economy is moving the Coalition even further away from its deficit reduction plans.

The government needs to wake up fast to the fact that we need a plan B for real economic growth; that means creating jobs and investing in the public sector to get the economy going once more.

The West Midlands is being particularly badly hit: the recent announcement of the fall unemployment nationally was not mirrored in the West Midlands where unemployment actually went up 7,000 to 235,000.

More bad news for the UK economy

After the recent gloomy news that GDP had shrunk by 0.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2012, today the Financial Times reports the long term outlook for the economy is not good. The FT reports:

The UK economy will shrink by half a per cent this year and grow only anaemically next year as it grapples with the weakness of its biggest trading partners, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research has forecast.

The institute predicted the economy would contract by 0.5 per cent this year and grow 1.3 per cent next year, a significant reduction from its forecast three months ago of zero growth this year and 2 per cent next year. 

The NIESR are a credible, respected and independent economic think tank. What they say carries weight, and their recent predictions have proved to be right. To see the full NIESR press release go here.

But you don't need to be an economics experts like those at the NIESR to realise George Osborne is wrecking the economy with his ideologically driven austerity measures. Time for Plan B.

Is the economy in good shape

For a persuasive analysis of the current position read this excellent blog post on the TUC's Touchstone blog.