It has been heavily telegraphed that the Chancellor will announce in the budget on Wednesday that local and regional pay will be introduced into four departments; one of which is DWP; this as a prelude these pay arrangements being rolled out to the rest of the civil service.

Of course we must resist this and we have the weapon to hand. Although PCS has almost exclusively emphasised the pension aspect of our ballot, it was in fact about jobs and pay as well- you remember?

Therefore we can take action against regional and local pay very quickly. In fact we can take action on the 28th March not only on pensions but on pay as well. A fitting reply to the Chancellor.