Low pay unit set to close

The Low Pay Unit is set to close on Friday due to a lack of
funding, ending 29 years of campaigning for the poor.

Richard Towers, director of the unit, blamed an increasingly
tight economic environment for the closure, a situation he said is
having an effect on all charities.

He added that the unit was particularly affected because of the
type of work it does – research and campaigning – with it becoming
increasingly difficult to find funding, and that in hindsight it
was probably funded on too narrow a base.

The unit will continue to be registered as a charity, and Towers
believes it could come back into existence in future years. He said
that the work would be missed with nobody else campaigning
specifically for the low paid.

“At the time of growing inequalities…there will be nobody
there to speak for the working low paid,” he said. “There is going
to be a big hole in the sector when we’ve gone.”

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