CWC Cost-of-Living Crisis Appeal

Help us keep care workers in their jobs during this cost-of-living crisis

We need your help now to ensure care workers can feed their families and keep up with rising household bills.

Social care affects over ten million people in Britain at any one time. Care workers are at the front line of an industry that supports people to live well regardless of their age, illness or disability. All of us are likely to need a care worker at some point in our lives whether for ourselves, our friends and families or within our communities.

But the adult social care sector is facing the greatest workforce crisis in its history. The data is extremely worrying - 1 in 3 care workers left their jobs last year and there are 165,000 vacancies in social care on any given day. Many experienced care workers are leaving the sector for better paid jobs in hospitality and retail, and of those who leave the sector nearly half say it is due to low pay. This has significant implications for hospitals who cannot safely discharge patients, and unpaid carers who have no choice but to take on additional caring responsibilities at home.

Care workers are fast becoming some of the lowest paid workers in the country, even though they provide an essential public service. They will not benefit from public sector pay rises or NHS wage reviews as the majority of social care is provided by private and not-for-profit organisations, even when much of it is funded by taxpayers.

The cost-of-living crisis is severely impacting care workers, and we are finding demand for our grants is rising as sharply as it did at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. When petrol prices are at the highest ever recorded, home care workers are more likely to call in sick because they cant afford fuel. When the price of pasta doubles overnight, care workers earning the minimum wage are likely to skip meals or buy fewer fresh vegetables to save money.

We know that when care workers receive a grant from us, they are more likely to stay in their jobs.

We need your support so our charity can continue to provide life-changing grants to frontline care workers across the UK, supporting them to stay in the social care sector so they can continue providing essential care and support and relieve pressure on the NHS.

Please donate to The Care Workers Charity, and your money will help to ensure one of our crisis grants is available to a care worker so they can:

Fill a tank in the average family car up to five times - essential for homecare workers who collectively drive over 4 million miles per day for work when petrol and diesel prices are at the highest ever recorded and gas prices have doubled in the past year.

Feed a family of four for one month a helping hand for families this summer who could see their monthly food budget go from £431 to £495 if food inflation reaches 15% as predicted.

Pay towards their increasing energy bills the increase in the energy price cap this year means that households need to find an extra £700 for fuel this spring, and another £800 this winter. Yet many have reported that prices are even higher, and their direct debits have doubled this year.

*Disclaimer: The money raised in this campaign will act as unrestricted funding so that The Care Workers Charity can continue to directly support care workers with grants and contribute towards overall operating costs*.

(*This includes administration of funds, campaigning and fundraising, and representing the interests of care workers at a national level.)