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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that a pay freeze is actually a pay cut?

85 replies

AndyWarholsBanana · 14/03/2014 14:08

OK so technically it isn't but in real terms it is. DH and I are both nurses and haven't had a pay rise for 3 years and now Jeremy Cunt has announced that he's backtracking on awarding 1% this year to all nurses who aren't at the top of their incremental scale.
In the period since we last had a pay rise, our fuel bills have gone up about 30%, train fares have gone up about 15%, council tax has gone up, DS2's nursery fees went up 20% etc etc.
We have gone from feeling reasonably comfortable financially to really struggling.
I work in mental health and the cuts have been really savage. As well as making me angry for patients, my job has become more difficult as I'm struggling to manage a huge caseload. So I'm working harder than I've ever done for effectively less money.
I'm so fucking angry.

OP posts:
PuntCuffin · 14/03/2014 17:59

And registration fees are tax deductable, so an increase there makes no difference to your income. I claim back nearly £1000 each year for fees that I have to pay in order to do my job.

Private sector, haven't had a pay rise in 5 years etc.
Have been public sector previously and had to leave to due to husband relocating his work. Most of my then colleagues didn't know how easy they had it compared to private, having never tried it.

NurseyWursey · 14/03/2014 18:11

And registration fees are tax deductable, so an increase there makes no difference to your income. I claim back nearly £1000 each year for fees that I have to pay in order to do my job

Yes it does, only entitled to £20 tax relief.

NurseyWursey · 14/03/2014 18:13

and kungfunpanda thats awful. Really sorry :(

Original poster
AndyWarholsBanana · 14/03/2014 18:26

kungfu that's awful. PLEASE let's not turn this into a public vs private sector bunfight. If person A is being treated like shit, the fact that person B is being treated even worse doesn't mean that person A isn't allowed to complain.

OP posts:
Wibblypiglikesbananas · 14/03/2014 18:26

Why not move overseas? DH and I couldn't afford to stay in London and for me to be a SAHM so we moved across the Atlantic for three years in the US. You can't keep on getting poorer and poorer and not act to change the situation. You can't make the NHS pay you more, but you can relocate to a country that's crying out for highly qualified healthcare professionals and will pay more as a consequence.

NurseyWursey · 14/03/2014 18:32

Agree andy no-one is denying we're all in a shit position at the moment, it's just who's in charge of ours right now :(

wibbly I have honestly been contemplating that but I can't leave my mum. I've been looking at average wages for my position, overseas and taking into account expenses over there and I'd be pretty well off compared to over here. I think it's something I'd like to do in the future

NurseyWursey · 14/03/2014 18:32

I know you weren't talking directly to me btw just saying ha

HauntedNoddyCar · 14/03/2014 18:44

My grade had an actual paycut of large proportions 3 years ago. I have been on the same grade for 8 years and was at the top of the grade 6 years ago. There are no opportunities to move up a grade. Therefore no incremental rises for me.

I was in private sector and my current role attracts twice my fte. When I can I may well move back.

NurseyWursey · 14/03/2014 18:47

The thing with the incremental is if there was no opportunities to reach those pay grades then they'd have to pay the wage at the top of the band.

SauvignonBlanche · 14/03/2014 18:54

^Don't forget those in the NHS also have v generous holiday allocations - a friend has 33 days leave a year plus bank holidays

Nonsense! That entitlement is for 10 years service and includes Bank holidays.

Wibblypiglikesbananas · 14/03/2014 18:54

Nursey - I don't think it's necessarily the best option - it is hard missing friends and family and due to visa restrictions, I can't work here myself. However, for us as a family, as a temporary fix (so to speak) it was the best of a range of options. Sad that moving away was the best thing for us in some ways - DH and I both had decent jobs, 5 years at uni apiece etc - but the cost of childcare meant staying wasn't a choice. Here childcare is cheaper, DH earns a lot more and we've since gone on to have another baby.

I read a book once with the quote 'Save yourself or you remain unsaved' - and it's true. No one is going to swoop in and pay more in the UK so energy is best channelled into making yourself marketable to a country which will.

NurseyWursey · 14/03/2014 18:56

wibbly Yeah I can understand that. It would be the best financially for me but everything else... yeah I'd be gutted and I'd miss everyone and England as a whole.

The thing is with your bottom paragraph, if we all think like that there'd be nothing left here. and we'd stop fighting for fairness in our own country. Not that it's getting us anywhere at the minute mind!

JohnnyBarthes · 14/03/2014 19:00

yanbu

Wibblypiglikesbananas · 14/03/2014 19:03

Yes - fair point! Everyone upping and leaving certainly isn't for the greater good. However, how poor do you (not you specifically, I mean one) have to become before enough is enough and you seek employment elsewhere, be that private sector/abroad?

holidaysarenice · 14/03/2014 19:05

I could accept 1% if mp's weren't getting 11%.

seeminglyso · 14/03/2014 19:07

Its not just NHS, I work in the public sector and have been on a pay freeze for years. Yes a pay freeze is effectively a cut due to inflation. Very basic economics.

Sidge · 14/03/2014 19:09

I am a practice nurse, so employed by the GPs rather than the NHS.

I haven't had a penny pay rise in 3 years, and no incremental pay rises despite our role and responsibilities changing hugely.

My NMC registration has gone up from £76 to £100 a year with minimal tax relief.

My NHS pension contributions are going up (again) and my cost of living just keeps going up.

Services in my area are being decimated as budgets are tightened up. My childminder ought to put her rates up as they haven't changed for a few years either but says she daren't as parents haven't had pay rises to match.

It's just such a depressing spiral.

cathers · 14/03/2014 19:10

Yanbu. But the grass is no greener in the private healthcare. My pay has been frozen since 2009 - 5 years with no increase. It is sickening that MPs are getting 11% pay rise. ..but we are in this together..?!

NurseyWursey · 14/03/2014 19:12

I had also been looking at private cathers is it no better there then as a whole? I have no idea of pay rates there but had presumed they'd be a bit better?

RandomMess · 14/03/2014 19:15

Not all public sector workers get incremental pay. I've worked at the same grade for 14 years, had good report every year and somehow am still at the bottom of the pay scale Confused primarily because we are paid so low they keep having to raise the bottom of the pay scale everytime I get off it!!!

Can't remember when I last got a pay raise! I'm just an administrator so I don't mind too much but it does really upset when I see specialist workers who have MSc/Phd FFS in the same boat - they have 15 years experience and someone else joins on the same salary who has perhaps 2 years from a different organisation - so not fair that experience is so undervalued.

People are leaving our organisation in droves and it is desperately sad and worrying for our sector of work.

Pobblewhohasnotoes · 14/03/2014 19:22

It totally mucks up the agenda for change pay scale. Surely if you're at the top of your band, at some point you'll be earning more than the people in the band above.

soverylucky · 14/03/2014 19:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NurseyWursey · 14/03/2014 19:24

sovery as a nurse I thank you for your support. It means a lot. We get dragged through the mud and it's heartbreaking when a lot of us are trying our best.

KonkeyDong · 14/03/2014 19:24

sauvignon you are wrong - the AFC handbook states that after 10 years it is 33 days + 8 bank holidays.

Starting holiday is 27 days plus 8 bank holidays.

BabyMummy29 · 14/03/2014 19:26

I am at the top of my pay scale in teaching and haven't had a pay increase for the past 3 years, plus I've had to pay a bigger pension contribution,

Add to that the fact that food, petrol etc have gone up in price so much during that period then I am definitely worse off