Thousands of NHS workers not paid enough to live on

Thousands of NHS workers are not paid enough to live on, new figures have revealed, as employers have been urged to fulfil their "moral" duty to pay staff a living wage.

- REBECCA THOMAS

Figures from the Living Wage Foundation shared exclusively with The Independent, show just 24 NHS trusts out of 219 are accredited real living wage employers, meaning that they offer all staff at least £10.90 an hour. In London, just 13 of the city's 34 NHS trusts are accredited.

London mayor Sadiq Khan, and an NHS boss David Bradley, have urged NHS trusts in the city to pay a living wage to all, while the union Unite said it was a "scandal" that so many in the capital did not offer it.

David Bradley, CEO of South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, which is leading the charge to encourage an uplift in pay to the living wage told The Independent "we've got a moral responsibility" to offer a living wage. "We're all really struggling in terms of getting staff, you know, filling vacancies. If you can show that you are a living wage employer, an accredited employer, that helps to be able to attract [staff]."

Employees must pay national minimum wage rates of between £4.81 and £9.18, depending on age, from school-leaving age up until the age of 23, while workers who are 23 or older must get a wage of £9.50 an hour - rebranded by the government as the "national living wage" in 2016.