Financial Support for Strike Action

Information on how to claim for financial support following strike action.

Overview

During strike action, UCU members may claim for a repayment of lost pay from two sources: the national Fighting Fund and the local Industrial Action Solidarity Fund. This includes staff employed on a casualised basis, including HPLs, GTAs, demonstrators, etc.

SUCU asks that you apply to the national Fighting Fund in the first instance. UCU national has more substantial funds and are in a stronger position to support a larger number of members.

If – for whatever reason – the national Fighting Fund is unable to cover all lost pay (for example, because financial support is needed from day 1, or if you have already exhausted your allowance of strike pay from national – see below), members can also apply to the local Industrial Action Solidarity Fund.

The local Industrial Action Solidarity Fund is also able to support members who may need financial support more urgently, and may not be able to wait until payslips are made available.

We recommend that any member who feels that loss of income is a serious impediment to participation in strike action makes a claim to the national Fighting Fund and/or the local Industrial Action Solidarity Fund.

Please email us at ucu@sheffield.ac.uk if you have any questions.

UCU National Fighting Fund

UCU members who are involved in disputes are supported through the national UCU Fighting Fund, which provides strike pay (a payment that is intended to help members meet their basic needs during a period of industrial action).

You can apply to the fund from the third day of participation in the industrial action onwards.

The National Fighting Fund is able to cover:

£50 per day if you earn over £30,000, and;
up to £75 per day if you earn under £30,000.

You cannot claim more than the amount lost. Claims can be made to the Fighting Fund from day 3 until the end of our current action, so a total claim of up to 8 days is possible.

In order to make a claim to the Fighting Fund you need to:

be paying UCU membership subscriptions at the correct rate (if any subscription is payable). PGR members should ensure that they have ‘Standard’ or ‘Standard free’ membership, rather than ‘Student’ membership.
have participated in official strike action for which officers have agreed to make funds available.
for each day of action taken to have lost pay as outlined above.
be able to supply a scanned copy, or photocopy, of your complete and unredacted pay slip(s) showing the gross amount of pay deducted for participation in the action, or other evidence that you suffered a deduction from your earnings as a consequence of having participated in the action.

Evidencing your claim

Claims to the UCU national Fighting Fund cannot be approved without evidence. Evidence (such as payslips) should be submitted in PDF format. It should be unredacted, and will be treated in a strictly confidential manner.

For staff that receive deductions for taking part in strike action in their payslip, these can be provided as evidence.

We recognise that there may be circumstances in which deductions do not show on your pay slip, such as in the case of hourly paid staff. In these circumstances we suggest that you provide other evidence showing that you have taken strike action, and have not been paid because of it.

This could include:

a copy of the relevant pay slip (if applicable, regardless of whether this is the main evidence you are providing)
copies of some or all of the following (this list is not exhaustive):
- a copy of your contract
- correspondence concerning work to be undertaken at a particular time
- your timetable or a letter/email from the employer setting out your teaching times, or informing you of cancelled classes
- any form or schedule which you completed in order to receive payment for the relevant strike period etc. For example, in the case of Casual work done via MyJobshop, this could include screen captures of timesheets submitted.
the rate of pay which you were to receive for those hours
a recent pay slip for a period unaffected by strike action (if applicable).

If you do not receive a pay slip for the work you undertake, please provide copies of the evidence sought in the preceding paragraph as well as a copy of a recent invoice you sent the institution/employer for a period in which there was no strike action.

Submitting your claim to the national Fighting Fund

To submit a claim:

Log in to MyUCU
Click on the ‘Fighting Fund’ tab
Follow the prompts to submit your claim

Once a claim has been submitted you will receive an email confirming receipt of your application and providing a claim reference number.

If you do not receive an email confirming receipt of your application, please check your junk and/or spam folders. Please do not make a further application until you have received confirmation that we have not received your application.

If you need to contact UCU about any aspect of your claim, please email us at fightingfund@ucu.org.uk. Quote the claim number in the body and subject line of the email

SUCU Industrial Action Solidarity Fund

The local Industrial Action Solidarity Fund exists to ensure that no members are prohibited from taking action for financial reasons. It is designed to support members disproportionately hit by taking part in industrial action, including, but not limited to, sole-income households, hourly paid staff, part-time/fixed-term contracted staff, people with recent periods of lower pay due to leave, and anyone else those with other personal circumstances not listed here.

We recommend that the first port of call for members who need financial support be the central fighting fund. UCU nationally has significantly greater resources than we do locally.

The maximum amount that a trade union is legally permitted to pay a striking member in financial support is the member’s daily pay. This means that the local Solidarity Fund will not be able to give members more than the difference between what UCU’s fighting fund and your salary for the 8 days covered by UCU, alongside support for the first and second day of action.

Most importantly, if you need financial support in order to be able to participate in strike action, then we want you to know that you are encouraged to apply.

For action in November/December 2025, the Local Industrial Action Solidarity Fund is able to guarantee:

£50 per day for members who earn below £50,000 and request support for the initial 2 days of action which are not covered by the National Fighting Fund.

It is also very likely able to support other members who wish to claim for these initial 2 days of action.

For members who earn under £30,000 and would be eligible for the higher rate of £75 per day from the national fund, our calculations suggest that this should cover your lost pay for the first eight days of action, however we will guarantee to cover any shortfall as well if required.

The fund is in a healthy state, and we aim to be able to support members beyond these 10 days of claimable strike pay if needed. We will continue to update members in relation to this (last updated 5th November 2025).

Evidence similar to that required for the Fighting Fund should be submitted, but there is greater flexibility (for example, urgent claims can be submitted prior to payslips being made available).

All information will be treated as confidential. Your application will be received by the SUCU administrator and reviewed by a small team of Committee members. If you would prefer any of these reviewers to recuse themselves from the review of your application, please indicate this in the google form.

Submitting your claim to the local Industrial Action Solidarity Fund

To submit a claim, please complete the google form. You will receive an email confirming receipt of your application. Fund administrators will aim to respond to your application within two weeks.

Submit your claim to the local Strike Support Fund

Please contact ucu@sheffield.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Donating to the local Industrial Action Solidarity fund

If you are in a position to do so, please consider donating to the local Industrial Action Solidarity Fund so we can support as many members as possible to participate in the action, irrespective of personal circumstances.

Which fund should I apply to?

Where eligible, you should first claim from the UCU National Fighting Fund
If necessary following applications to the national fighting fund, you should apply to the Industrial Action Solidarity Fund
If you need an urgent response (for example, to cover bills or rent) you can apply to the Industrial Action Solidarity Fund first before receiving an outcome from the Fighting Fund, and make a subsequent repayment to the Industrial Action Solidarity Fund when payment from the national fighting fund is received