Abused at work, cold and hungry at home: the reality for UK’s care workers

Keeping the heating off at home and restricting water use is just one of the ways people like Kerry Walsh make ends meet.

The 45-year-old mother-of-two works an eye-watering 70 hours a week as a care-home manager, taking as much overtime as she can, but the cost-of-living crisis has left her on her knees.

She’s one of an army of people who carried our vulnerable through Covid but can no longer afford to keep her own home warm.

‘It’s a nightmare, the care sector is such a low-paid profession,’ Kerry tells Metro.co.uk. ‘It’s physical, emotional, nonstop and it can be draining. And I’m only just managing to keep a roof over our heads.

‘If you spoke to anyone in care, they would say they aren’t doing the job for the money. You do it because you want to help people. But without the overtime I wouldn’t be able to carry on.’

Last autumn, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt praised the ‘heroic work’ of the social care workers during the pandemic – yet the profession has been chronically underfunded for years.

With the average wage being just £9.50 an hour, a shocking 54% of carers are paid below the living wage and the sector has seen a 11% real-terms pay cut since 2016, according to Skills for Care. 

Things don’t seem to improve the longer they stay in the role either; care workers with five or more years in the sector are paid just 12p an hour more than new starters, according to The Care Workers’ Charity. Unsurprisingly the sector is now facing the biggest recruitment crisis in its history.

Kerry, from Stoke on Trent, has a 20-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter at home and often skips meals to feed the kids. She kept the heating off until December, and does everything she can – including showering at work – to save on bills. ‘I’ll sit here with two jumpers on and the duvet wrapped around me. I go to the local gym and pay £3 for swim, mainly to use the shower. Since heating costs have gone up it’s quite surprising how many you see in the facilities doing the same.’

She can’t afford to pop out for little shops. Instead, Kerry does a monthly food shop as the only economical option available. ‘Last pay day, I made five big lasagnes, cut them down into portions and froze them,’ she explains. ‘I’ll make spaghetti bolognese, fish pie, cottage pie. It’ll cost around £300 to £350 for the month. I’ve cut back on my own food too; Or if I was making sausage and mash the kids would have three or four sausages each and I probably only have one.

‘I would love to sometimes just take the kids for a meal out, or splash out on a takeaway. Or just have a day of doing nothing; sitting on the sofa. But I can’t afford to. I sometimes ask – why am I doing this?

‘I feel like I’m letting the kids down because other people are having meals out and trips away and I’m just keeping a roof over their head. I can’t save. I’m living month to month. It’s soul destroying.

‘I love my job, but my wages go in and the bills get paid, and three days later, I’m back up to my overdraft. It’s a vicious cycle.’

Kerry relies on credit provider Fair For You for her white goods; she bought a washing machine, tumble dryer, fridge freezer and vacuum on the system over the years – describing it as her saviour. But she doesn’t understand why she and her colleagues work so hard and get so little in return.

‘People like me have done vital work on the front line through the pandemic, and we deserve to be paid a decent wage. We’ve carried people through Covid and if it wasn’t for our roles, it would have been a much worse situation.’

Some care workers have reported turning their boilers off permanently or not being able to take their children shopping because they can’t afford extra items in the basket. Others are getting by on just one meal a day, according to the GMB union.

Sherifa has cut every conceivable cost. She is grateful to Lewisham Plus Credit Union who have helped her furnish her London house where she lives with her three kids, but she has had to borrow butter, sugar and essentials from neighbours, and often goes without. She relies on food bank vouchers, but feels self-conscious and tries to avoid taking free food. 

A quarter of care workers were already living in poverty before the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, and the Care Workers Charity is seeing unprecedented demand for its support.

Karolina Gerlich, CEO, says: ‘It’s been crisis after crisis for care workers in the UK. Demand for our financial support is higher than it’s ever been, with most applicants saying that their wages barely cover rent and bills.

‘It is unacceptable that care worker pay is always benchmarked by the government to the minimum wage and it’s no wonder that many of them feel forced to leave the jobs they love to get better paid work in supermarkets.

‘This increases unmet need in the care system, meaning that people can’t get the care they deserve and putting lives at risk. Vastly underpaid care workers going to work on empty stomachs cannot be expected to deliver decent care.’

Zoe Smith counts herself as one of the lucky ones. She provides end-of-life care to children in homes and hospitals around Walsall on a zero-hours contract, and she takes home just £12.50 an hour.