Britons have been given their first pay rise since the beginning of last year with average wages climbing. A year-long squeeze on real incomes, constraining economic growth, has come to an end.
 
Figures released tomorrow are expected to show average wages in February rose 3% on a year earlier, above the inflation rate of 2.7% for the same month. This marks the first time pay growth has outpaced the rise in inflation since January 2017.
 
On Wednesday, statistics from the Office for National Statistics are expected to show a continued decline in inflation to 2.6% in March.
 
The numbers are set to be welcomed by households after inflation over the past year dealt a blow to spending power.
 
The early signs of recovery come after a “lost decade” for pay, which still has some way to go before reaching its pre-financial crisis peak. 

“My Constituent Was Sanctioned For A Heart Attack”

DWP Boss Ignoring Real Life Impact of Tory Policies.

DWP boss Esther McVey struggled through a Holyrood committee meeting as the real life impact of Tory welfare policies was laid bare.

SNP MSP George Adam raised the case of a constituent who had been sanctioned after suffering a heart attack – but was met with a brick wall as Ms McVey insisted the system was working.

After Ms McVey said that Universal Credit was fit for purpose, Mr Adam told her “with the greatest respect, that’s completely devoid from the real world.”

He continued: “In my constituency, I’ve got people who’ve been suffering constantly because of the roll-out. We’re not even a full roll-out area.

“What about people like my constituent, who ended up getting sanctioned because he had a heart attack and was in the Royal Alexandra Hospital?”

SNP MSP Ben MacPherson also said that he’d met constituents in tears due to DWP cuts and challenged Ms McVey to apologise to those affected, which she refused.

Commenting, George Adam said:

“That was like speaking to a brick wall – despite the overwhelming evidence of the negative impact of the Tory welfare agenda, Esther McVey just insisted that all was well.

“The fact is, the botched Universal Credit roll-out is having a devastating impact on many across the country – and that’s just the latest in a long line of Tory welfare cuts.

“With our limited powers over welfare, we’re building a Scottish social security agency with dignity and respect at its heart – and we’ve refused to use the discredited sanctions regime in our new employability service.

“But the extent of Westminster cuts to the welfare state show why we need full powers over social security in Scotland – not in the hands of the Tories.”

ABC Notes:

GA: “Do you believe, in your opinion, that Universal Credit in its current form is actually fit for purpose, or does it work?”

EM: “Universal Credit is fit for purpose…”

GA: “Secretary of State, with greatest respect, that’s completely devoid from the real world. Because in my constituency, I’ve got people who’ve been suffering constantly because of the roll-out. We’re not even a full roll-out area…

“What about people like my constituent, who ended up getting sanctioned because he had a heart attack and was in the Royal Alexandra Hospital?”

EM: “Should anybody have such an issue as you’ve described, with illness or a heart attack or a condition, something like that, they would have full mitigation and would not have any sanctions imposed upon them. We need to help those people and make sure it’s not a frightening experience, it’s a positive experience and get them the money they need, the support they need, and if it’s help to work, ensure that they get that best help…

GA: “But Secretary of State, I’m saying that in my experience that’s not happening. That isn’t happening out there with people. They’re not getting that support. The situation is they come to our constituency offices as their last best hope to try and help them. By that time, there’s already been problems. Specifically, in the case with the gentleman with the heart attack which we managed to sort out ourselves, but it shouldn’t get to that to that stage.”

Are you based in Wales and looking for work? Workways+ is backed by £17.3m of EU funds through the Welsh Government. Support targets participants residing outside of Communities First Areas who are economically inactive, long-term unemployed or have complex barriers to overcome. Workways + helps participants take their first steps to re-engage or enter into the labour market. The project is led by Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council in collaboration with Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion County Councils.

Workways+ offers training and paid work experience opportunities to long-term unemployed people to help them on their route back to employment.

Amanda Needham, 57 has recently benefited from their support to find employment at a newly opened farm shop and welsh bistro.

Having recently moved to the area with her husband, Amanda had previous experience in retail and manager roles, and was looking for a role that wasn’t too stressful and hours that would suit her. Not knowing what type of work that was available in the area, Amanda sought help and advice from Workways+.

Workways+ mentor, Wendy Fitzpatrick, contacted Bargoed Farm, a family run business in Llwyncelyn, Ceredigion, who were setting up a new farm shop and bistro, The Moody Cow. She sought out whether there were any employment opportunities available at the farm which would suit Amanda. After an initial period of volunteering at the farm, the owners, pleased with Amanda’s pro-gress, began employing her on a part-time basis after she received training in Health and Safety. Amanda is now working full-time at the farm shop and bistro and working towards further qualifications in Food Hygiene.

Workways+ offers one-to-one mentoring, support with job-seeking and Inter-view skills, and the chance to gain new qualifications. Support will target individuals affected by work-limiting health conditions and disabilities, as well as those with care responsibilities or low or no skills.

Councillor Ellen ap Gwynn, Ceredigion County Council Leader said, “It is positive to hear of Amanda’s story, like many others, who have benefitted from Workways+. They are an important service of helping people over 25 in Ceredigion get back into work, receive training opportunities or volunteer.”

If you would like more information, contact the Workways+ Team at Ceredigion County Council on 01545 574193 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Image: Workways+

Social Security Committee

April 16, 2018 09:00

1. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: The Committee will take evidence from- 

Rt Hon Esther McVey MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, UK Government;
Mary Pattison, Director, Ageing Society, State Pensions and Devolution, and Denise Horsfall, Universal Credit Operations Area Director, Scotland, Department for Work and Pensions.

ABC Note: We will be having this meeting as an embeded video later today 

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations wants to delay the rollout of Universal Credit, while the Government deals with abolishing the bedroom tax.

They say while the bedroom tax remains, there’s a greater chance of tenants not receiving the right amount of money.

Devolved housing powers are allowing Scotland to abolish the tax, but that won’t happen fully until 2020.

Universal Credit’s currently planned to be fully implemented in July 2019.

Sally Thomas, SFHA Chief Executive, said:

“Dealing with Universal Credit and ‘bedroom tax’ mitigation has been a huge challenge for housing associations and co-operatives as well as their tenants. The problem stems from the split of responsibilities: calculation of liability for the ‘bedroom tax’ lies with the DWP and calculation of Discretionary Housing Payment entitlement to mitigate the ‘bedroom tax’ lies with local authorities. With Housing Benefit, this is not such a problem as responsibility for both parts lies with local authorities, and the process is practically seamless. 

“At present, there are still comparatively few tenants on Universal Credit but, even so, it is understood that local authorities are finding data sharing problematic, which makes the accurate assessment of entitlement to Discretionary Housing Payments a challenge, with a greater chance of tenants not receiving the right money and housing associations tied up in having to unravel incorrect assessments. Abolishing the ‘bedroom tax’ at source is essential, as it will bring the calculation of entitlement back under one roof – the DWP’s.

“There is also the issue of scale. Back in November 2017, there were under 22,000 households in social housing receiving Universal Credit housing costs. By comparison, there were 234,000 households in social housing receiving Housing Benefit. The vast majority of these households on Housing Benefit are expected to move over to Universal Credit in a managed migration between July 2019 and 2022. The switch from using Discretionary Housing Payments for mitigating the ‘bedroom tax’ to its full abolition needs to be completed beforehand. Without the switch, the managed migration could be extremely challenging; to try to make the switch in 2020, when in the middle of moving so many households over to the new system, is fraught with difficulty.

“The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Esther McVey MP is to appear before the Scottish Parliament Social Security Committee on 16 April, and I am sure the opportunity will be taken to raise these concerns.

Image: Scottish Housing Holyrood

ABC Note:

 
1. The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) was established in 1975 and has around 116 members providing affordable housing and wider community services across Scotland, as well as a further 200 commercial associates. The SFHA is owned and governed by its members and exists to lead, represent and support the work of housing associations and co-operatives throughout Scotland www.sfha.co.uk
2. The SFHA is the voice of housing associations and co-operatives in Scotland. SFHA members own and manage 80% of the 280,000+ housing association stock across Scotland. Together, housing associations and co-operatives provide housing for almost 500,000 people, which is one in every 11 households.
3. Over 11,000 staff are employed by SFHA members across Scotland. 
4.  Housing associations and co-operatives are not-for-profit bodies regulated by the Scottish Housing Regulator. 

On Friday we had news the ABC was awarded a BIG Lottery ‘Awards for All’ grant, for our Work TV project (£10,000) and in the afternoon, we were approved for a further matching grant of (£4,000) from LoCASE (a low carbon initiative) from the EU run by Chelmsford Borough Council, for lighting equipment. There is also a possibility of another matching ward of (£3,000) but that’s something for Monday.

Simon Collyer, ABC founder is taking part in Cambridge based Allia Ltd, entrepreneurship programme. Allia Serious Impact helps entrepreneurs innovate, start-up, grow and scale. Allia offer a clear, structured pathway to help founders turn their vision into something that creates positive impact. Over 800 organizations have been founded and grown with Allis’s help over the last seventeen years, some organizations growing into ventures worth tens of millions of pounds. We kick off at Ideation (day one of the course), at Allia's Future Business Centre in Peterborough, early May.

We also had a meeting at the University of Essex, Knowledge Gateway with training organization, Knowledge Pathways International. Abdulrahman Razourk the founder has a Ph.D. in leadership and entrepreneurship. More will be coming about this relationship but ‘all in all’ Friday was a ‘day and a half’.

The ABC started with Simon being given a Millennium Award with the help of director Gareth Bickerton and a Lottery award that created our current website.

1993 biography It Ain't As Easy as It Looks by Porter Bibb, was the title of Ted Turner, founder of CNN, biography. We rather think he knew what he was talking about. Still, you have to be ‘in it to win it’ and when the tide does turn, you have days like Friday. 

Ted's Montana Grill is an American restaurant chain specializing in bison. The company was founded by bison rancher Ted Turner along with restaurateur George McKerrow Jr. with the help of corporate chef Chris Raucci as a for-profit effort to stop the extinction of the American bison.

Image: The Montana Grill.

Image: Ted Turner is an American media mogul and philanthropist and Americas Cup winning yachtsman. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the Cable News Network (CNN) and Turner Broadcasting. An enviromentalist, Turner has been responsible for repopulating the US with African Bison. 

Technology—in particular automation and artificial intelligence—is disrupting the way Americans work. But with targeted initiatives and investments in education, retraining, mobility, and support systems, the United States can help its citizens adapt to the workforce of the future.

EU Member States are facing employment shortages in a number of key sectors: Europe could need up to 756,000 skilled ICT workers and around a million healthcare professionals by 2020. A revised EU Blue Card aims to attract the world's best and brightest.

The Lisbon European Council in March 2000 set the Community the objective of becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs, and greater social cohesion. 

In October 2007, the European Commission adopted two proposals. The first was to establish a Framework Directive for the purpose of the admission of skilled and educated migrants to the EU, later known as the EU Blue Card directive. The second proposal is a directive to simplify migration procedures by funnelling applicants into a single application procedure, the single permit directive. In May 2009, the European Council adopted the EU Blue Card directive. In December 2011, the single permit directive was adopted.
Together, they establish the EU Blue Card Scheme: A demand-driven, residence and work permit. 

"Labour migration into Europe boosts our competitiveness and therefore our economic growth.
It also helps tackle demographic problems resulting from our ageing population."
José Manuel Barroso

Objectives

The EU Blue Card program is designed to make Europe a more attractive destination for professionals from outside the European Union. All EU member states -except the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland- issue the EU Blue Card. 

To an extent the Blue Card program is a merit-based system; interpreting a person with ‘merits’ as one who received adequate education or, through professional experience possesses sought-after skills. The blue card is not points-based; either you have the education or skills, or you do not. 

The European initiative has a number of distinctive qualities that will help Europe become the world's most favourite migration destination:

• Working and salary conditions equal to nationals
• Free movement within the Schengen area
• Entitlement to a series of socio-economic rights (e.g. unemployment benefit)
• Favourable conditions for family reunification
• Permanent residence perspective
• Freedom of association

Conditions

Three key conditions are to be met in order to request the EU Blue Card.

• Non-EU citizenship
• Educated or professionally experienced
• Work contract or binding job offer

Your profile in the EU Blue Card Network has a double function: it can be consulted by employers so that they can offer you a job contract. Secondly, it enables you to submit your application.

The SNP has said that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) rhetoric to make work pay “reeks of hypocrisy,” after figures revealed that the department has taken on over 27,000 people for unpaid work placements since 2011 – with no record of how many have then been offered full or part-time employment after the placement has ended.

In response to a Written Parliamentary Question from SNP MP Alan Brown over the number of people who have taken on unpaid work with the department, the DWP said, that since 2011, it has taken on 27,775 unpaid staff - with no information on whether or not they had gone on to full time employment or let go. 

In Alan Brown MP’s own constituency of Kilmarnock & Loudoun, the DWP has taken on 55 unpaid staff.

Alan Brown MP said:

“The figures detailing the scale of unpaid placements within the DWP, and the lack of any records as to how many of those placements have led to full or part-time employment, is staggering and reeks of hypocrisy.

“The grim reality is that whilst the DWP trumpet on about getting people into paid work, they have simultaneously taken on more than 27,000 people for unpaid placements - with not a single bit of paper to show how many have then been offered paid opportunities.  

“The DWP repeatedly talk about making work pay and how work is the best route of poverty, yet the very same department is reaping the benefits of unpaid labour. 

“If the UK government is serious about getting people into work and out of poverty, then they must get their own house in order first and ensure that there is not simply a revolving door of unpaid staff, with no prospect or documents of future employment.”

Following the announcement that the 2 Sisters Group will close its chicken production plant in Cambuslang in August 2018, local MSP Clare Haughey has said her “overriding priority now as the constituency MSP is to ensure those who are being made redundant find alternative and suitable work.”
 
The announced closure comes following an eight-week consultation between the company, Unite the Union, Scottish Enterprise, Paul Wheelhouse Minister for Business as well as local politicians.

Ms Haughey has previously met with the management of the 2 Sisters Group and spoken with workers and trade unions to offer her support during the ongoing uncertainty over the last few months.

Image: 2 Sisters Food Group

Clare Haughey MSP said:
 
“I am saddened to learn of the decision announced today that the 2 Sisters Food Group are to close their factory in Cambuslang this August, despite the best efforts of Unite the Union, the Scottish Government and its agencies.
 
“My overriding priority now as the constituency MSP is to ensure those who are being made redundant in August find alternative and suitable work. In addition to the support that will be offered by the Scottish Government’s PACE team, I have today written to Uddingston-based Dawnfresh to ask that they consider employing some of the well-trained and motivated staff from 2 Sisters. Dawnfresh could be in line for a major contract from Marks & Spencer, who were a customer of 2 Sisters, and I urge them to speak with the workforce in Cambuslang should they be awarded this contract and require additional staff.
 
“This decision is devastating for Cambuslang and nearby communities, and I will ensure I can be of as much assistance as possible to my constituents during this difficult time.”

Image: Clare Haughey MSP