Pay cap: Minister calls for UK cash to fund public sector rises

The public sector pay cap is "forcing workers into poverty", a union leader claims

The public sector pay cap for workers in Wales should not be scrapped using Welsh Government money, the finance secretary has said.

Mark Drakeford said it was "not a sensible course of action", saying the UK government should pay any increase.

A nurses' leader warned the 1% limit was "forcing workers into poverty".

The UK government said its policy was "designed to be fair" but added the Welsh Government was responsible for pay in most devolved public services.

Public sector wages have been frozen or capped at a 1% annual increase rise since 2010.

The Welsh government could deviate from the UK government's policy but without additional funding from the Treasury it would have to find the money from its existing budget.

It said the cost of increasing public sector wages by an additional 1% would be about £110m with £60m needed for the Welsh NHS alone.

Mr Drakeford told the BBC's Sunday Politics Wales programme: "It's not a sensible course of action for me to spend Welsh money where UK government money ought to be spent.

"The way we will do it is to put pressure on the UK government and to say, 'now is the time to do this, lift the cap and give us the money so we can do that in Wales'."

As for a Scottish government pledge to scrap the cap, Mr Drakeford said: "They've always had more money at their disposal than we do here."

'Seriously considered packing it in'

Neil Evans is an A&E nurse at the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, with 16 years' experience.

"I've taken a second job on a health care bank with another health board and I do shifts just to pay the bills, to get through every month," he says.

"And that's what I'm finding a lot of my colleagues are doing - they're doing what they can to survive every month.

"We shouldn't have to do it - we work full time, we've come out of university with degrees.

"I have seriously considered packing it in and taking a job in a supermarket or somewhere less stressful."

'Political priority'

However, Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood called on the Welsh Government to lift the cap on public sector workers in Wales starting with Welsh NHS staff.

"If it's a priority for Labour UK-wide it should be a priority for Labour in Wales," she said.

"We've estimated the cost of this to be around £60m. In a budget of £15bn, that can be found - if it's a political priority."

The British Medical Association - which represents doctors - has backed Ms Wood's call.

But Tina Donnelly, the Royal College of Nursing's director in Wales, said: "It's not for devolved administrations to say 'we're going to remove the cap' because they can't afford it."

She said the average nurse had lost £3,000 from their annual salary as a result of the pay cap.

"It's forcing public sector workers into poverty," she said.

"We see nurses who are working frontline in the NHS on their days off taking on bank and agency work to make ends meet or going to food banks.

"That is just absolutely deplorable."

On Wednesday, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss defended the cap, saying: "Government pay policy is designed to be fair to public sector workers, who work so hard to deliver these strong public services, but we must also ensure that we are able to provide those public services on a sustainable basis for the future."

A UK government spokesman added: "The Welsh Government decides public sector pay policy for devolved public services in Wales including health.

"They have an increasing number of powers under the Wales Act to decide more tax and spending policies and support their priorities."

Sunday Politics Wales, BBC One Wales, Sunday 9 July, 11:00 BST