Gair Rhydd 1058 - 14th September 2015

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gair rhydd | freeword Cardiff ’s student weekly Issue 1058 Monday 14th September 2015 Also in this issue

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Is your Students’ Union representing you?

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• CUSU comes out against George Osborne’s phasing out of maintenance grant and Theresa May’s crackdown on visas • BUT Students’ Union unlikely to pay living wage to its student staff, despite its “concerns” over Government’s introduction of madatory living wage to over 25s only by April 2016 EXCLUSIVE Joseph Atkinson

C

ardiff University’s Students’ Union (CUSU) has risked alienating the members it seeks to serve by continuing to avoid paying the majority of its student staff the living wage despite renewed financial pressure being put on students.

In July’s Budget the Chancellor George Osborne announced a mandatory living wage for all over-25s from April 2016. However Osborne will also phase out the non-repayable maintenance grant given to students to help pay for essentials such as rent and food, to be replaced by a maintenance loan by September 2016. And in further developments the Home Secretary Theresa May outlined

plans for a crackdown on visas that will make it harder for international students to come and study at Cardiff. While the Students’ Union has come out strongly against the phasing out of the grant and the new rules on visas (more on page 7), there has been no such statement on Osborne’s decision not to include under-25s in his mandatory living wage. When queried as to whether the introduction of the living wage by April

Pictured: The Park Place SU building (source: Cardiff Students)

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Continued on page 4

Welcome! Gair Rhydd Freshers’ Week edition 2015

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