Exactly! It will be another year of waiting! And then they don’t get us a penny more anyway! I don’t want to wait until dec to get the pay rise. It should be out choice if we want to accept it now. All this waiting around again is a nonsense as they always accept it every time anyway.

Appreciate the sentiment but we will lose more in unpaid strike days than the employers are ever going to offer. Feels like we lose either way.

If this woman started her qualification in say 2019, at that time the cost of living had not yet risen to this ridiculous level. Therefore, the average Social Worker’s salary at the time she commenced her studies would have been appealing and most of us were probably able to live relatively comfortably.
In 2019, as a newly qualified Social Worker, I had disposable income, yet now, despite moving up the pay scale, I can barely survive! Again, to reiterate, this is due to our salaries not reflecting inflation ( to provide just one example, my mortgage rate in 2019 was 1.19% as opposed to my current rate of 4.3%). Get it now? Oh yeah, I forgot… nobody held a gun to my head and made me buy a house! I guess nobody holds a gun to my head and forces me to buy my children food either right?

Also, in regards to changing careers, Social Workers barely have time in the day to take a p**s, let alone search and apply for other jobs!

I was literally about to write the same thing…” full & final means just that to the gov..no negotiation..get it done.

Oh Jeff, you’re one of ‘those’ ignore the massive shortfall in council funding from the government, misuse of public money, horrendous austerity and then blame the people working in their local authorities that deliver essential services for wanting to be paid above minimum wage even if they have a skilled role. It’s also proven that public sector wage increases lead to better productivity and retention and raise the average wage in the private sector. But hey, I suppose public servants should be in some kind of indebted servitude (whilst also paying the exact same taxes you do).

The pay offer will be implemented regardless of any union consultation which , as all know only delays the inevitable as per the previous 2 pay offers. Accept the offer as that’s all we are going to receive, fact.

Completing your qualification was your choice. Did anyone hold a gun to your head and tell you to do it? Surely you sat down and looked at your finances before starting, and made a decision that you could continue? If so then you can’t then blame someone else for the situation you are in knowing the financial situation at that time.

Your bursary being denined, again this was your choice to go ahead without that support. You were never guaranteed a bursary, no one is and many people are denied.

If the job is that stressful and the pay is so bad (the salary you already knew) then leave and find another job.

Your statement comes across very entitled.