Shocking news has emerged via a study that has found the shocking situation NHS workers have found themselves in.
The study, by Unison, discovered that nurses are using food banks and applying for pay day loans just to get through the month, until the next pay day.
The trade union said that years of pay freezes has left NHS staff without the funds to make ends meet.
The survey of 21,000 workers found that one in ten had to pawn their own possessions and one in seven had to move to a cheaper property or re-mortgaged their home, due to dire finances.
Twenty per cent even worked a second job to make ends meet and around eighty per cent have thought about leaving the job due to the poor salary levels.
Unison’s head of health, Christina McAnea, said: “These figures paint a shocking picture of the effects of pay restraint on hard-working NHS staff.
“They’re having to sell or pawn their belongings, move house or ask relatives for financial help while doing critical and life-saving jobs in our health service.
“The NHS already has significant staff shortages in key services, but our survey shows more than half of NHS workers are seriously considering leaving their jobs as a result of dwindling pay and increased workloads – this is a message the Government cannot ignore.”
Unison have worked out that around £4.3 billion has been slashed from NHS salaries over the last six years, and there are concerns that lower grade workers income could slip under minimum wage levels, way of the living wage, especially in London.
