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MOST Brits think that austerity-hit care workers should be paid the same as pharmacy assistants and some other NHS staff, a new poll reveals today.
Some 80 per cent believe social care is “as important or deserves the same respect” as the health service, while two-thirds want care staff to get the same wages as NHS band-three workers, research from learning disabilities and autism charity Dimensions UK shows.
Band-three roles include emergency care assistants, occupational therapy support workers and pharmacy assistants, who receive salaries of between £21,000 and £23,000, depending on experience.
Plans to delay access to the universal credit health element until age 22 have triggered fierce opposition from disabled people’s groups, who warn it would deepen poverty and entrench discrimination against young disabled people under the guise of ‘encouraging work.’ DYLAN MURPHY reports
