I work as a housing benefit adviser for a local authority in the West Midlands. Every day I meet and help people who need assistance paying their rent, and sometimes I have to give bad news to those who do not qualify for any help, because their income is slightly above the amount we are told a family can live on.



Many people get upset when they are given this news, but what most do not realise is that myself and many of my colleagues are in a similar situation.

Public sector pay cap: May 'recognises sacrifices of workers' Read more

As public sector staff, we have to show a level of professionalism, but often this is an act. The stark reality is that many of us leave work each evening and go back to cold houses with little food in the cupboards. Too many of my colleagues are reliant on family or friends for food, and if they have no one to turn too, they may even have to use food banks.

All of us use public services, from the staff collecting our bins to the teachers and support staff looking after our children, and it is not right that anyone should have to turn to food banks or have to take out payday loans just to get through the month. If there was an emergency bill to pay, many of us public sector staff fear we wouldn’t be able to cover it. This thought alone keeps me awake most nights and I know it is the same for many of the people I work with.

This in turn has an impact on the work we do. Being mentally drained before you start work is no good for us or the public, and it’s made worse by the extra workload caused by staff shortages and sickness.

Some may argue that we should leave our jobs if the situation is this bad. Yes, we could go into other jobs where the wage may be higher, but public sector workers do our jobs because we want to help people. If we leave who will help our most vulnerable and what will happen to the services?

There are people more needy than ourselves. We are already seeing them being failed by privatised services.

Public sector staff need a pay rise, not just to support us, but to help us stay in our jobs and support those who need the support of public services. A pay rise for all public sector staff is not only good for the workers but also for the economy and the wider community. We don’t want to be taking in-work benefits; we would much rather be paid appropriately for the work we do. We want to be able to give back and help boost our economy. Recent research by my union GMB shows that while the government said that the pay cap would save £2.2bn this year, the bill for agency and temporary workers has risen by £2.5bn across the public sector. So it doesn’t look like all this pain is saving any money at all.

What will cost more than lifting the public sector pay cap? Not lifting it | Faiza Shaheen Read more

Recently the government had the opportunity to end the financial and mental suffering we are all experiencing when a vote was called in the House of Commons on this issue. We all felt like we had taken a blow to the stomach when the vote was lost and the Conservatives cheered. Cheered to keep people in poverty. Even Dickens couldn’t have written a tale such as this.

Instead we were left with empty praise from Theresa May. Messages such as “public sector workers do a fantastic job” do not keep our homes warm, they do not put food on our tables and do not put clothes on our back.

We love what we do, but when we are facing huge real-terms pay cuts which affect both us and our families – GMB research shows 2.4 million children are affected by the pay cap, words mean nothing.

We need everyone to support our campaign to end the public sector pay cap for all public sector workers and give us a ALL a decent pay rise.

This series aims to give a voice to the staff behind the public services that are hit by mounting cuts and rising demand, and so often denigrated by the press, politicians and public. If you would like to write an article for the series, contact kirstie.brewer@theguardian.com

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