Together with other unions, the TUC, and campaign groups like Unemployed Workers Centres and the Child Poverty Action Group, PCS is organising a lobby of Parliament and public meeting on 3rd of March.
James Purnell's proposals for reform of the welfare state represent an attack on much that our movement holds dear.
The bill if implemented will allow cuts of up to 40% of benefit payments for vulnerable people including lone parents with children. People with disabilities and long-term illnesses are already finding themselves on reduced benefits, and face increased pressure to seek work - even though many employers will not take on such workers. They will oblige the long-term unemployed to work for their benefits, something that even Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet rejected. They will get an effective hourly rate of pay of only £1.74, massively undercutting the minimum wage.
They plan to put the Social Fund, last port of call for the desperately poor; in private or charitable hands, taking us back to the Victorian era and they will privatise more of the functions currently performed by our members in Jobcentres, forcing many of the most vulnerable into the hands of private companies interested only in how much they can milk from the state.
I am proud of the role that PCS has already played in campaigning against these proposals, but now we must step up the fight. The Welfare Reform Bill is making rapid progress through parliament, and we are determined to make sure that MPs understand how backward the proposals are - especially when so many jobs are being lost, and people need assistance, not bullying.
We are organising a lobby of parliament on the 3rd of March, beginning with a rally at 12.30 pm in Room 14 at the House of Commons, Westminster.
This is not only a struggle to defend jobs and public services, it is a defence of the welfare state upon which any of us, or our friends, or our families may rely on in the future.
Please make every effort to attend and lobby your local or workplace MP.
Please contact our campaigns staff by email or on 0207 801 2820
or 020 7801 2773 to let us know who will be attending and which MPs you have contacted prior to the event. Travel and subsistence will be paid for one attendee per constituency.
Further details, including leaflets and a briefing will be made available on the PCS website here.
