Six out of 10 NHS nurses have had to use credit or their savings over the last year to help them cope with the soaring cost of living, according to new research.
Acute financial pressures are forcing some nurses to limit their energy use while others are going without food. Many are doing extra shifts to help make ends meet.
The findings have added to fears that money worries and inadequate pay will prompt even more nurses to quit the NHS, which is already short of almost 35,000 nurses.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which undertook the survey of almost 11,000 nurses in England, claimed that too many in the profession had been left without enough money to cover their basic needs as they paid the price for “the government’s sustained attack on nursing”.
Nurses have seen a 25% real-terms fall in their income since 2010, separate research commissioned by the RCN found. Analysis by London Economics, a consultancy, found that the value of nurses’ salaries fell by 24.63% between 2010-11 and 2023-24 as a result of below-inflation pay rises and pay freezes during the last decade.
The RCN survey found that 60% of nurses surveyed had either used credit or dipped into their savings to cover their living costs during the last 12 months.
One nurse in the north-west told the RCN: “We have been using credit cards to live and now the interest is crippling us. We can’t afford basic things. I have nothing left at the end of the month. I am having to work extra shifts just to eat. I work with people who are all in debt and coming to work just to turn their gas on.”
A quarter (27%) said they were struggling with living costs and were increasingly worried about their financial situation.
The survey also found:
77% of nurses said they were worse off than a year ago.
43% said their mental health had been affected by financial problems.
68% had rationed gas and electricity.
32% said money struggles had damaged their physical health.
Prof Pat Cullen, the RCN’s general secretary and chief executive, said: “Today nursing staff are rationing electricity and gas with financial pressures pushing a third into a state of mental distress. Pay has been devalued so much that they are effectively working five days or more for free each month. Ministers who once seemed glad to applaud NHS staff should reflect on this terrible state of affairs.”
Nurses in England received a 5% pay rise for 2023-24, the lowest in the public sector. The NHS in England has vacancies for 34,709 nurses, the most recent NHS figures showed. That means 8.8% of all nursing posts are unfilled.
Prof Dame Anne Marie Rafferty, a former president of the RCN who is a professor of nursing policy at King’s College London, said: “Given that 90% of nurses are women, and women are key decision-makers in the household in terms of resource management, nurses face the double jeopardy of home and work pressures and the invidious choices of what to buy and what to save and ration in the weekly shop and energy bills.”
She said parts of the NHS were being “hollowed out” through a combination of young nurses quitting and older nurses retiring because of workload pressures and burnout.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “We hugely value care provided by our fantastic nurses, which is why we negotiated a fair and reasonable deal with the trade unions delivering a 5% pay rise, two additional one-off bonuses equivalent to 6% of pay and a series of non-pay measures to support the NHS workforce.
“There are almost 361,000 nurses working across the NHS – over 60,000 more than in September 2019 – and we will continue to grow the workforce through the first ever long-term workforce plan, backed by over £2.4bn. The plan commits to doubling training places for adult nurses by 2031 and improving retention with measures around working conditions, flexible working and training.”
