‘It IS a pay rise’: Matt Hancock defends 1 per cent pay offer for NHS staff amid claims that it is actually a pay CUT because inflation is due to rise this year
- The Health Secretary told MPs that the proposed offer was ‘affordable’
- Was asked whether it was a pay increase or a real-terms pay cut due to inflation
- Told Health Committee: ‘(It) is indeed a pay rise, that’s simply a matter of fact.’
Matt Hancock defended a planned 1 per cent pay rise for NHS staff today, claiming it would not mean thousands of nurses are worse off than they are now.
The Health Secretary told MPs that the proposed offer, which has sparked fury from unions and politicians across the Commons, was all that was ‘affordable’.
But grilled at the Health and Social Care Committee over whether the offer was, as has been claimed by Labour, a real-terms pay cut, he insisted it was not.
Under questioning by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, he said that NHS workers had been ‘carved out’ of the pay freeze in the rest of the public sector to be awarded the 1 per cent rise.
Asked whether it was a pay increase or a real-terms pay cut, Mr Hancock added: ‘Inflation is below 1 per cent and therefore a proposed 1 per cent pay rise is indeed a pay rise and that’s simply a matter of fact.’
UK Consumer Price Index inflation is currently 0.5 per cent. However the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has forecast it to hit 1.5 per cent later this year, meaning any pay increase below this will be swallowed up.
Shadow health and social care secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: ‘Matt Hancock knows full well that with the OBR expectations for inflation, he is imposing a pay cut on NHS staff in a pandemic.
‘Ministers should take this pay cut off the table and start talks with staff on a multi-year pay deal that reflects their worth and address recruitment and retention in the NHS.’
The Health Secretary told MPs that the proposed offer, which has sparked fury from unions and politicians across the Commons, was all that was ‘affordable’.
Under questioning by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, he said that NHS workers had been ‘carved out’ of the pay freeze in the rest of the public sector to be awarded the 1 per cent rise.
When asked by Mr Hunt why it was 1 per cent when the NHS 10-year plan made a 2.1 per cent provision for annual pay increases for NHS workers, Mr Hancock said: ‘The NHS was carved out of the pay freeze that has been applied due to the enormous pressure on the public finances, that has been applied to everyone else in the public sector.
‘We put in place evidence reflecting what is affordable and we of course will study what the pay review body says.’
Ministers have been softening their approach to the initial offer – submitted to an independent pay review board – in recent days as anger grew at the scale of the offer after a year in which the NHS has been front and centre in the fight against Covis-19.
Whitehall sources claimed last week that officials were now contemplating trebling their offer to 3 per cent.
Unions had been demanding a 12 per cent pay hike, but NHS England boss Sir Simon Stevens said a 2.1 per cent bump – like staff were originally promised – would be a fair deal.
The Royal College of Nursing has claimed the rise would mean just £3.50 extra per week for a senior nurse.
The Mail has revealed that nurses were always going to be in line for a bigger pay rise than 1 per cent, due to previously-agreed Government deal.
Thousands of NHS staff were due to get a 1.7 per cent increase to their wages this year, in the last piece of a three-year pay deal that has already boosted salaries by 12 per cent.
The extra 0.7 per cent is worth another £230 to someone on the average nurse’s salary of £33,000.