Civil servants say they incurred debts after the Mozambican government announced a new single salary scale. Now, after the suspension of the measure, they report constraints on the family budget.

According to DW's report, the suspension of the new Single Wage Scale is causing several constraints on the family budget of some civil servants in Mozambique.

Marta, a health worker, and Pedro, who works as an administrative clerk, are a couple of medium-sized state employees. The names are fictitious, because the couple has requested anonymity. But their concerns are real.

The couple lives in the Muhalaze neighborhood in the city of Matola. The government's announcement that the Single Wage Table (TSU) will go into effect on July 22 led Marta and Pedro to make plans.

"It was to improve something to earn income. For example, making a grocery store so I could help myself with expenses," says Pedro.

Government pulls back

But when Filipe Nyusi's executive backed down, all plans fell apart. Life not only went back to what it was before, but got worse, says Pedro: "The prices of products exploded and every day they increase, considering the standard of living, the fuels went up, and it is a serious problem.

With the announcement of the payment with the new Single Wage Scale many public employees ran to the banks to take out loans. When it became clear that the TSU would no longer be in effect after all, videos of an employee's suicide were circulated on social networks.

Marta says that many others were hospitalized for suffering from the hypertension. "The situation got complicated. We had an expectation of having an increased amount. I'm almost always at the hospital and I've noticed that there are a lot of people with tension [because of the suspension of the measure]," she reports.

Suspension hampers family budget

Low-income families in Mozambique eat at most two meals a day. After the suspension, Marta had to redo the math taking into account the soaring prices.

"We are turning around cutting some things. For those who used to eat lunch, snack and dinner, they had to cut two meals. They now have two, in fact," laments Marta, warning that many of those affected by the suspension of the TSU are public employees and that "if the Government continues like this, we are going to have a lot of casualties.

Pedro also laments the difficulties in the families' budgets saying that the "situation has worsened".

The government has not yet put forward a date for the TSU to come into effect.

However, Marta asks the government to make all the rectifications beforehand, so as not to disappoint the people again: "The government has to do something.