{"id":16104,"date":"2018-09-10T11:50:34","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T10:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16104"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:15","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:15","slug":"left-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16104","title":{"rendered":"Left in the dark"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Yesterday (Sunday September 9) Unite delegate Syed\u00c2\u00a0Nahid Uddin spoke to a packed hall at Trade Union Congress conference in Manchester in support of motion 31 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c pension auto-enrolment and the lowest paid.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Uddin, a first time delegate put himself forward to speak at conference following a news story revealing that just one in ten young workers feel that they have any plans in place for retirement.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThanks to zero hour contracts and precarious work, many young workers are given no certainty whatsoever about the coming days and weeks &#8211; let alone years and decades,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165\u00c2\u00a0Uddin told conference.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs this motion makes clear \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a tax loophole means that thousands of low paid workers are being denied the government top-up of 20 per cent,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For young workers on low pay, that 20 per cent could make a huge difference.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis could affect hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers, disproportionately low-paid women workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo it is only right that we should raise awareness and use our collective strength to slam this loophole shut,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is the latest example of how the pensions system is rigged against low-paid workers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Another government loophole requires workers to be earning over \u00c2\u014110,000 in a single job before benefitting from automatic enrolment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This locks out many workers, who have multiple jobs. Again, disproportionately affecting low-paid women workers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bConference, we need to place this in context. The trend in pensions over the last few years has been towards shutting Defined Benefit (DB) schemes,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Uddin.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>These DB schemes gave workers security and certainty.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bInstead of this hard-earned security, more and more firms are setting up schemes which are tied to the stock market,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOften workers have no oversight into where these investments are made &#8211; leaving us in the dark about the risks being taken in our name,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Uddin\u00c2\u00a0ended by urging conference to help end the injustice by supporting the motion.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur futures must not be gambled with. Pensions are not a luxury. They are not a bonus. They are deferred pay. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s end the pensions lottery,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday (Sunday September 9) Unite delegate Syed\u00c2\u00a0Nahid Uddin spoke to a packed hall at Trade Union Congress conference in Manchester in support of motion 31 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c pension auto-enrolment and the lowest paid. &nbsp; Uddin, a first time delegate put himself forward to speak at conference following a news story revealing that just one in ten [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[96,270,1008],"wps_subtitle":"End pension injustice now","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16104"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25911,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16104\/revisions\/25911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}