Rishi Sunak hands Britain key workers COVID-19 crisis pay rise

London: UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak on Tuesday handed an above inflation pay rise to key workers such as doctors, teachers and police officers in recognition of their hard work during the Coronavirus pandemic crisis.

The UK's Treasury Department, which the Indian-origin minister heads, said that nearly 900,000 workers will benefit across the country, with teachers and doctors seeing the largest rise at 3.1 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively recognising their efforts on the frontline during the battle against COVID-19. Police and prison officers will both have a 2.5 per cent rise in pay, scheduled for the 2020-21 financial year.

"These past months have underlined what we always knew that our public sector workers make a vital contribution to our country and that we can rely on them when we need them," said Sunak.

"It's right therefore that we follow the recommendations of the independent pay bodies with this set of real-terms pay rises," he said. The UK's Armed Forces will receive a 2 per cent uplift as 16,340 new recruits join the UK Regular Armed Forces from April 2019 to March 2020, an increase of 30.9 per cent compared with the previous 12 month period.

This pay rise follows the settlement for more than one million National Health Service (NHS) workers who continue to benefit from the three-year Agenda for Change pay deal, under which the starting pay for a newly qualified nurse has increased by over 12 per cent since 2017/18.

This means nurses who are still moving up their pay structures will receive an average 4.4 per cent rise this year. There are 12,220 more nurses and health visitors working for the NHS compared to last year, the government said.