Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Health workers ‘can’t afford to feed children’
Cleaners look to benefits system for help
HEALTH workers want to take unpaid leave in a desperate attempt to use the benefits system to feed their kids, it has been claimed.
A union official at the Royal Victoria Hospital told how lowly-paid domestic staff had spoken to him over the issue as it was the only way their children could qualify for free school dinners.
Unison branch secretary Conor Mccarthy revealed: “I had two women, cleaners, approach me the other day asking if they could get extended leave, but unpaid leave.
“At first I didn’t understand why they’d want to do that but they explained how they had worked it all out, how they just can’t make ends meet with the money they’re earning.
“But they saw they’re right on the threshold of getting free school dinners and if they lost a few quid wages they’d qualify.
“They had it all planned, how they’d save this and that, cancel their TV subscription or whatever.
“But this is the state of desperation people on the lowest wages are facing. This isn’t people on the dole, this is the working poor and the reality they face of not being able to give their kids a hot meal unless they bend the rules.”
Mr Mccarthy said a move to pay workers aged under 25 the same National Living Wage rate as over 25s is being delayed here by the Stormont impasse.
He added: “It’s a disgrace we have Stormont suspended yet the MLAS already got a raise this year, while these people, low-paid domestics, are struggling. “We’re not calling on the MLAS’ pay to get stopped though... we just want them to earn it.”
UNISON YESTERDAY