The £1500 being offered to civil servants is not funded by new money. Departments have to find the money from existing budgets to pay it. Bizarrely the union seems to have made no effort in negotiations to ensure it is funded. In a future posting, we will talk more of these so-called negotiations.

Both the teacher’s union (NEU) and the healthcare unions have centralised as a core demand that any pay increase or bonus is funded by new money. The importance of fore-fronting this demand is clear:

• Schools, NHS Trusts – and government departments and agencies -would have to fund all the money out of existing budgets, meaning a further degradation of public services. In a Department like the DWP, the cost of payment will be close to £130m. That’s money being taken from the delivery of public services to the most vulnerable.

• With no guarantee on redundancies other than they would ‘avoid where possible’, employers may attempt to cover the cost by reducing headcount and/or closing offices.

In both education and healthcare, the government have conceded to either fully or partially funded the offer with new money.

We are already aware of one agency, Audit Wales, claiming they can’t afford to pay the money. Rightfully the union is approving strike action there, but still has not demanded the Cabinet Office fund it. Why not?

Other departments could claim the same thing, or could implement restrictions on who is eligible for the cash, such as pro-raftering the payment for part-timers or restricting eligibility on the basis of time-in-post as many are attempting.

Added to the litany of other issues, this is yet another reason why the dispute needs to continue.

We should also remember that nurses and teachers have voted to reject better or comparable settlements that were at least partially funded by new money unlike this one.

PCS Independent Left believe we should bank this money which is being given regardless of whether we end the dispute or not, and we should therefore continue the fight alongside other public sector workers. If you think what we say makes sense, why not join us?