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MEMBERS of Civil Servants’ union PCS entered into their second day of a 48-hour strike action against welfare cuts today, with 95 per cent of the staff walking out for yesterday’s action.
The dispute, brought about by Iain Duncan Smith and which involves nearly 1,500 workers employed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), has arisen over the Tories’ controversial flagship universal credit.
PCS members at the Universal Credit Service Centres in Glasgow and Bolton have complained about inadequate training, staff shortages and difficult targets as well as an “oppressive management culture.”
DYLAN MURPHY reports that far from helping people back into work, the sanctions regime is inflicting unnecessary trauma on working-class families
Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
In the current climate, it is vital to bust the myths and put forward the case for a humane and decent social security system that supports people, argues FRAN HEATHCOTE