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51¸£Àû/1073 26 March 2021

University and College Union

Carlow Street, London NW1 7LH, Tel. 020 7756 2500, www.ucu.org.uk

ToÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Branch and local association secretaries

TopicÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Subscription rates 2021-22 and ongoing review

ActionÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý For endorsement by Congress 2021

Summary ÌýÌýÌýÌý Subscription rates for 2021-22 as agreed by the NEC, plus a report on the ongoing review of subscription rates and bands

 

Dear Colleague

Subscription rates 2021-22 and ongoing review

At its meeting in March 2021, the NEC considered subscription rates and bands and agreed, for 2021-22, the subscription rates set out in section 6 of this paper for recommendation to Congress.

The subscription rates and bands were approved at meetings of both the SFC and NEC in March 2021 and are fully detailed in section 6.

 

Yours sincerely

Dr Jo Grady

General Secretary

 

 

 

Subscriptions for 2021-22 and ongoing review

Summary 1             This paper reports on the effect of continuing subscription band changes and gives an update on the review of subscriptions started after Congress 2018. 2             The paper makes proposals for changes to subscription rates and bands for 2021-22.Ìý

 

1             BackgroundÌý

1.1        Motion 5 from Congress 2018 asked the Treasurer and NEC to look at subscriptions with a view to moving towards a more proportional system. The motion suggested a timescale of 5 years with regular reviews and to maintain awareness of membership loss arising from changes to subscription rates and the consequent loss of income to the union. The motion asked the Treasurer to consult with specialist employment committees and with members which was mostly done in 2018-19, apart from the ARPS committee which was inoperative in that year.

2             Subscriptions consultation

2.1        I met again with the Anti-Casualisation Committee on 20 November 2020 and had a discussion with three members of the committee about subscription rates. They gave me a copy of their discussion paper ACC/362.

3             Report on last year’s change to bands F3/F4

3.1        Last year we made a change to the boundary between bands F4 and F3, changing it from £20,000 to £21,999. This followed a change the previous year to the boundary between F4 and F5, from £10,000 to £15,000. These changes moved members on lower salaries within the bands down into the band below and thus reduced their subscriptions dramatically, provided that they updated their subscription band when prompted by a letter from the General Secretary about the change.

3.2        The effect of the change made last year to the boundary between bands F3 and F4 was estimated to be that about 3,180 members moved down into band F4, at an approximate cost in reduced subscription income of £280,000.

3.3        The steps made in the last two years have been of large and significant benefit to those lower paid members.

4.ÌýÌýÌý Ìý Proposals for 2021-22

4.1ÌýÌýÌý The proposals for subscriptions for 2021-22 have been prepared ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýwith the following principles at the core of their construction:

i)             Congress 2018 Motion 5 – movement towards a more proportional system.

ii)           Representation from various parties/committees.

iii)          Action towards alleviating subscriptions for those on the lowest salary levels.

4.2ÌýÌýÌýÌý Firstly, the budget proposed to SFC requires an overall decrease in subscription rates in total. This means that for members in F0 to F2 categories, subscription rates will be frozen for the current year, with no increase.

4.3ÌýÌýÌýÌý Secondly, we propose to reduce subscriptions for those in categories F3 to F5 by 2% for the year to 31 August 2022, this is a real reduction of 3.4% when factoring in inflation at current rates.

4.4ÌýÌýÌýÌý The frozen and reduced subscription rates will affect all members and will make further significant moves move towards the principles detailed earlier.

ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý This is directly aimed at achievement of Principles i), ii) and iii) above.

4.5ÌýÌýÌýÌý The overall effect of the above moves has been a proportionate swing of 25% of subscription rates away from lower paid members towards higher paid members, over the period of the exercise. The attached graph (Figure 1) shows this movement, with the heavy red areas denoting comparative increases in subscriptions in the categories F0 to F2 over the period. The blank areas bordered by black lines denote the decreases in subscriptions in the F3 to F6 categories over the period. It must also be borne in mind that some 80% of all subscription income is derived from members in the categories F0 to F2 inclusive.

 

continued below

 

 

ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Figure 1 Comparison of 2016/17 subs rates and bands with 2021/22 proposals

 

5.ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Remaining current issues from the Review

5.1ÌýÌýÌýÌý Reducing the rates in bands F3-F5 as proposed will improve proportionality as illustrated in Figure 1. The figure shows the proposal for 2021/22 in graphical form with the subs rates and bands as they existed in 2016/17 for comparison. The labelling along the bottom is based on the band boundaries defined last year and which we do not propose to change this year, the subs rates up the left-hand side are the figures proposed for 2021/22. As can be seen, we have moved significantly towards a more proportional system, with members in the higher salary bands paying more proportionally than they did in 2016/17, and conversely, members in the lower salary bands paying proportionally less than they did in 2016/17. Members who remain in band F3 after last year’s change are the ones clearly who are next in line for a reduction to make the system fairer.

5.2ÌýÌýÌýÌý Congress 2021 will be three years on from the Congress in 2018 which initiated the subscription review, with a timescale of 5 years. Therefore, assuming that our finances continue to be sound, it should be possible to continue the process, and make a further change next year to achieve an even smaller step between bands F4 and F3 by moving the band boundary once more.

6. Subscription rates for 2021-22