- Conference
- 2012 National LGBT Conference
- Date
- 25 July 2012
- Decision
- Carried
The Eastern Region is a large mainly rural area including Norfolk, which is the sixth most deprived county in England. Great Yarmouth, Norwich, Kings Lynn and Thetford are ranked in the top 10% of most deprived areas in England, based on the Index of Deprivation.
There are also hidden pockets of deprivation scattered across the region and 50% of deprived individuals live in rural areas.
There are people living on low income and low pay with limited provision of affordable housing and lack of access to local services especially as 40% of rural parishes have no shops or post offices.
UNISON believes in everyone having a living wage, a wage that takes into account the area specific cost of living as well as the basic expenses involved in supporting a family. Nationally outside of London this figure has been calculated at £7.20 per hour. This is based on a couple with 2 children both working 37.5 hours a week with paid childcare and taking up their full entitlement to benefits.
This is a very basic budget and is for a family living in council housing, with no car and no contributions to pensions or paying off any debt.
In rural East Anglia they would more likely have to have some kind of transport and live in rented accommodation due to the lack of social housing and the rural nature of the area.
The minimum wage is currently £6.08 rising to £6.19 in October 2012. Even jobs paying about one third above the National Minimum Wage are now falling short of meeting the needs, even with the help from the state. People will need very large pay increases to make up the difference because the state will withdraw this support rapidly as the pay rises. Taking all these factors into consideration a family living in rural East Anglia needs a minimum wage of at least £10.14 per hour to have even a very basic life style.
Conference calls on the National lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Committee to:
1)Support the Campaign for a Living Wage;
2)Ask branches to support this campaign and to write to their MP asking them to support it;
3)Provide guidance and campaign materials around LGBT issues and the Living Wage;
4)Make sure members are aware of the UNISON Welfare services.