Pay freeze hits part-time staff

MOTHERS working part-time are being hit the hardest by the government's public sector pay policy, an MP said yesterday.

Labour's Gloria De Piero said women earning 12,000 a year were not benefiting from a pay rise because their pro-rata earnings put them over the 21,000 pay freeze threshold.

The MP for Ashfield claimed this showed the government had failed to protect some of the most vulnerable workers in her constituency.

But Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said low-paid workers would be helped by a "significant increase" in child tax credits announced in the Budget.