![]() Those are the sacrifices that people don’t talk about but that’s what the care workers were going through,” he recalls. ![]() “It was the constant hand washing leaving you with cracked skin, the blisters and rashes and from wearing full PPE for 12 hours a day and having to do that for 50, 60, 70 hours a week. I don’t know how that can be,” she says.Īlan Hiscutt, who manages an elderly people’s care home in Southampton and has worked as carer for 15 years, has seen many people leave, particularly after the gruelling experience of working in care homes during the pandemic. You go into people’s homes and sometimes you’ll be the last person that they see if they’re dying, or the only person they see at all. “Carers are paid such little money, really, for such an important job. Just over 70% of care workers are paid below the Real Living Wage, which campaigners say is the minimum wage needed to meet everyday needs and is currently set at £10.85 in London and £9.50 for the rest of the UK. The pressures of the job started to affect Claire’s mental health even before the pandemic, but her condition worsened when she was unable to see family or friends to avoid potentially exposing the residents of the care home she worked at to COVID.Ĭlaire has had to rely on food banks four times in the past five years and borrow money from her family to get by, despite being in work. In April, she was evicted after falling into rent arrears. Claire, 45, has worked as a carer for seven years. Many of those who are being hit the hardest were on the front lines of the pandemic. ![]() Now low-earners are also bearing the brunt of the cost of living crisis because they spend a higher proportion of their disposable income on food, energy and fuel. They were more likely to be exposed to greater health risks, have their earnings reduced, or lose their jobs altogether, according to the International Labour Organisation. Like many low-paid workers in the UK, Ivan and his colleagues were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. “I have a colleague who works two jobs already, he also is a delivery worker, and he is still struggling,” says Ivan, who is 39 and originally from Ecuador. With inflation now reaching 10% and rents rising by 13% in London since last year, he’s worried about providing for his daughter. But Ivan says his pay hasn’t kept up – Mitie agreed to a small rise only after a campaign led by his union, the IWGB. In June, Mitie announced profits of £167m, boosted by £429m of government COVID contracts in its annual results. Get one whole story, direct to your inbox every weekday.
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