Sign our petition to make the £1500 exempt from Universal Credit deductions
PCS has launched a petition via the TUC, asking the secretary of state for work and pensions, Mel Stride, to make the £1500 cost-of-living payment fair to Universal Credit recipients.
Earlier this month PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka wrote to the paymaster general, Jeremy Quin, demanding that the £1500 payment be exempted from deductions for Universal Credit recipients. Following that, PCS has now written to the work and pensions minister with the same demand.
The payment has been imposed by government without consultation or negotiation with the union, meaning that PCS has had little opportunity to influence how it has been applied across civil service employers.
Please sign and share the TUC Megaphone petition.
Universal Credit payments
Universal Credit recipients are among the lowest paid workers and treating the £1500 as ‘surplus earnings’ is particularly unfair.
The UK government has already made cost-of-living payments to millions of people over the past year, and these did not affect the receipt of Universal Credit. PCS believes that it is only fair that the lump sum payments are exempt, too.
Mechanisms already exist to allow ministers to do this, ensuring that millions of workers would be in receipt of the full payment, without the government clawing much of it back through benefit deductions.
The petition will allow PCS to maintain political pressure on the government to treat PCS members fairly and exempt the payment.