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Budget 2021: Public sector workers set for pay rise, says Sunak - BBC News

Budget 2021: Public sector workers set for pay rise, says Sunak - BBC News

Budget 2021: Public sector workers set for pay rise, says Sunak - BBC News
Oct 25, 2021 2 mins, 5 secs

At least 1.3m public sector workers are set to see their wages rise next year after the government confirmed their pay freeze is being lifted.

The public sector pay freeze was part of the government's response to what it described as the "economic emergency" caused by Covid, with only the lowest-paid excluded.

In his spending review in November 2020, Mr Sunak said he could not justify an across-the-board increase when many in the private sector had seen their pay and hours cut in the crisis.

In a statement, Mr Sunak said: "The economic impact and uncertainty of the virus meant we had to take the difficult decision to pause public sector pay.

"And now, with the economy firmly back on track, it's right that nurses, teachers and all the other public sector workers who played their part during the pandemic see their wages rise.".

The Treasury said the "temporary pause" had helped ensure the gap between public and private sector pay did not widen further during the height of the pandemic.

It said public sector average weekly earnings rose by 4.5% in 2020/21 whilst private sector wage increases were a third lower than they were pre-crisis, at 1.8%.

And it said exactly how much of a pay rise public sector workers receive depends on the recommendations from the independent pay review bodies, who set the pay for most frontline workforces - including nurses, police officers, prison officers and teachers.

Wednesday's announcement will not outline pay offers for public workers, those will come after independent pay bodies report in the new year.

Mr Sunak defended the decision to freeze pay this year but said that with the economy back on track, it was right to reward public sector workers.

The UK's largest union, Unison, said the pay freeze would continue "in all but name" unless government departments get extra money.

Its general secretary Christina McAnea said while there was "never a good time to freeze public sector pay", to do so "at the peak of a pandemic was the height of folly" while "staff were doing their all to keep under-pressure services running".

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Bridget Phillipson said: "This Conservative government's choice last year to freeze pay for so many frontline workers, who have been among the real heroes of the pandemic, was damaging and unsustainable.

Low-paid public sector workers to get £250 pay rise?

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