With the RPI (retail price index) showing the average rate of inflation over the 12 months to March this year was 3.8 per cent, and with food, fuel and transport prices rising much faster, the Government's offer of 2.45 per cent this year is an effective pay cut for teachers, on top of those suffered in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

All teachers have lost out, but those newest to the profession will suffer most. Young teachers struggle to make ends meet in the face of ever-rising housing and transport costs, while the Government has allowed the rate of interest on their student loans to double to 4.8 per cent.

However, it is not just teachers who are affected. The average family is having to bear the brunt of rising food and fuel costs.

Grocery prices alone have risen 12 per cent in the last year, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

At the same time, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has tried to impose a two per cent pay-freeze – in effect a pay cut – on millions of public sector workers.

The pay freeze is another way of making ordinary people pay for the economic crisis that's developing on the back of the 'credit crunch', much like the abolition of the 10p starting rate for income tax that is set to leave an estimated 5m of the poorest people worse off.

But there is always enough money to bail out the banks. About £55bn of taxpayers' money was found to sort out the mess at Northern Rock, and now the Bank of England plans to open up a credit line for the other banks.

Yet there is never enough to pay a decent wage to those who teach in our schools and colleges, who help the unemployed or those who keep local government and other public services running.

When every public sector worker faces an effective pay cut, it is only common sense for public sector unions to fight together. These workers deserve a living wage.

Tony Dowling,
Membership secretary, Gateshead NUT.