RAISING the minimum wage for care workers to £15 would boost Britain’s economy by £7.7 billion and help end the recruitment and retention crisis, analysis of local authority data has found.

The research, revealed by the TUC today, found that while the social care workforce accounts for £52bn of Britain’s economy, there are around 165,000 vacant posts.

This shortage has led to a surge in the number of people waiting for social care assessments and millions of hours of commissioned home care going unprovided, the union body said.