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Taking a Tax Credits Motion to UNISON’s National Delegate Conference. I attended UNISON’s National Delegates Conference in Bournemouth on 17th – 20th June 2008, as a delegate from the West Sussex Local Government Branch (part of the South East Region). Conference papers showed that the National Executive Committee had actually sought to strengthen Motion 100 (“TAX CREDIT OVERPAYMENT – UNFAIR CLAWBACK OF PAYMENTS”) with their own amendment 100.01, which updated the original Motion with the recent changes to COP26, as well as asking more of UNISON in terms of future support for the Tax Credit Casualties. The NEC indicated that their policy was to support the Motion as amended, which was encouraging. Had the business of Conference stretched to a debate on Motion 100, I would have moved it and after some debate a vote would have been taken from the floor. Unfortunately, with 117 Motions in the pre-Conference booklet, not to mention amalgamated ‘Composite’ Motions and last-minute Emergency Motions, Motion 100 was not heard. Presidential addresses, keynote speeches, the moving of rule changes, presentations from the union, a closing tribute and presentation to the President all took a massive amount of time. The South East region tried to edge Motion 100 onto the priority agenda at our re-prioritisation meeting, where it came second to Motion 63, ‘NEW LABOUR – WHAT DO WE GET FOR OUR MONEY’. Across the regions, delegates placed Motion 100 13th in the whole Conference’s order of reprioritization. In the end Conference could only reach the second or third priority items, so I didn’t get to speak. However, the Standing Orders Committee and National Executive Commitee assured me that Motions which were not moved will be individually considered by the NEC after Conference and could still become UNISON policy. It is still possible this will happen in January or February 2009, bringing tax credit injustices to the attention of over a million union members. At Conference I was able to network with potential supporters, although Rachel Voller, vice chair of UNISON’s Labour Link, with whom I had a long discussion about the injustices inherent in the tax credit system, has yet to deliver on her Conference offer of setting up a meeting between representatives of the TCC and Gordon Brown. UNISON Welfare, unsurprisingly, receive many requests from union members for support in disputing tax credit overpayments, and I was able to pass on some information about the work of the TCC. Attending Conference was Dave Anderson, one of the Tax Credit Casualties’ most sympathetic Labour MPs (for Blaydon), who had attended the TCC’s ‘Voices of the Victims’ Westminster launch the previous week. Following up promises of support since June has been a slow and painstaking process, but London-based representatives of UNISON Welfare have been in touch recently asking for training from the TCC in the handling of disputes. Alison Myers-Ward |
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Please note that we are not tax professionals and are working on a voluntary basis, unpaid, in our ‘free time’. Between us, we have a lot of experience and knowledge in this area, gained over the last few years of supporting victims and helping them fight for justice and their rights. But legislation, operating practice and individual cases change all the time. While we aim to be professional and accurate at all times, please understand the circumstances we are working under, and accept our support, guidance and information in the sprit it is offered; goodwill and camaraderie.
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