Social care workers earn about £8,000 a year less than NHS staff, a study suggests - with some relying on food parcels.
Other jobs with similar skill levels, such as senior teaching assistants, are paid an average of £26,327, again significantly more than care workers, Korn Ferry found.Mollie Moorby, 23, works with adults with physical and learning disabilities in Stockport, Greater Manchester. "This is my dream job, helping people," Mollie told the BBC.She is trained to support people with their daily life, including with their health needs and food.
Mollie started looking after her own mother as a teenager, and gradually realised she wanted to work in a caring role. However, on £10 an hour she struggles to put food on the table and cannot afford to turn on her heating. "When you're working 40 to 50 hours a week and you put in everything, not only physically, but mentally, emotionally - for lack of better words - it doesn't seem fair."With the cost-of-living crisis, things became so difficult that Mollie asked her bosses at Community Integrated Care for help. As a result, they started providing food parcels for staff in need, and they have given out more than 80 since September.
"With the food parcels, it has been a lot easier," says Mollie. "You get necessities, things that are expensive, like laundry detergent. That was stressing me out for a while."The charity says it has already used its financial reserves to increase wages for Mollie and her colleagues. However, it says it cannot raise them further because it is now running at a loss - as the fees it receives from councils for providing support are not enough.
"We are subsidising the contracts that local authorities are asking us to provide," says Teresa Exelby, from the charity. "We want to do absolutely everything we can, but as a charity that is not sustainable. Fundamentally, the system is absolutely broken."
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