To consider giving up my full time job to be an agency nurse?

[TheWorldIsMine]

I currently work full time, 6 days a week and it's killing me. I miss out on a lot of social events, work a lot of weekends, as working all of the Christmas bank holidays - I just hate it.
Anyway I've just registered with an agency and found that they are offering shifts to suit with much better pay. I could drop down to 30 hours a week and still bring home £200 more a month than I currently do! Plus I could choose my own weekends and holidays.

Obviously only snag is it isn't guaranteed work but bloke in phone said it's more less a given that if get at least 30 hours a week.

I'm so tempted. DH works full time and we could get by short on his wage if it all went tits up and I could get another nursing job quite easily if I wasn't picky (worst case scenario).

the Government is currently looking at capping the fees that agencies can charge the NHS as they are currently a huge draain on the NHS so in a short while it might not be as rosy as it looks today. My son is a junior Dr and he is moving to do a GP rotation for 4 months which means he will drop down to basic pay - a significant loss. He has joined an agency and will do locum work at £5-600 per shift to make up the difference in his take home pay - saving for a wedding so can't afford such a drop.

No because the payments are too expensive. DH earns £35k a year and puts £80 into his pension per month. I'm on £21k and was having to put £120 in a month as well as pay my student loan out of my wages. If you can afford it, you can't afford it.
Obviously if I was to move to somewhere offering higher salary then pension might be an option again.

I've just called NHS bank - they're crying out for staff and have said if I join I'm guaranteed whatever shift I want whenever I want it. So I'm going to apply to them tonight and hopefully moonlight between bank and agency!

I worked for the NHS for years, I've never heard of anyone that opted out of the pension .

If the £120 pension payment means you're struggling financially, then is it wise to leave your NHS contracted role and go on a zero hours agency contract?

Of course the "bloke on the phone" said 30 hours is more or less a given. He can say what he likes, he knows you've got absolutely no comeback if it's not true.

It's not just about the money, it's about flexible working. To be honest the agency is offering £18 an hour flat rate, £25 for Saturdays and £30 for Sunday's which is a far cry from the £45 flat rate they used to offer so maybe this is already the capped rate? It's still better than shitty NHS

I've just called NHS bank - they're crying out for staff and have said if I join I'm guaranteed whatever shift I want whenever I want it. So I'm going to apply to them tonight and hopefully moonlight between bank and agency!

Just letting you know that the nhs bank nearly always say this... The reality is that ward staff tend to get the first pick of shifts then the bank do a call out for the remaining shifts which, if the 2 trusts I've worked for are anything to go by, will be a right load of crap.

If money is so tight that you can't afford the workplace pensions payments then going to a zero contract would be beyond silly imo.

Will this make revalidation more difficult?

Out of interest if you work solely through an agency do they cover your professional Indemnity or do you have to arrange it yourself?

Argh if £120 makes a huge difference to you you really really shouldn't be considering this, sorry :(

Can I recommend a different course of action? You don't say what sort of nursing you do. But if you were to work in a specialist area, such as ITU, you could top up with bank work at specialist rate. I'm working on a 0.6 contract right now, with pension, which suits me because I have fairly young children. But if I want more hours, we're always short, so I can do extra hours at specialist rate, which means I don't need to register with an agency and it's still much cheaper for my Trust because they don't need to pay agency fees.

Is your husband public servic/civil servant? Honestly unless he is, you should be redirecting his £80 pension contribution towards your gold plated nhs pension pot.

I've just worked out, between NHS bank and agency I'd only need 3 shifts a week to receive around £200 more than I am now. Throw the odd short Saturday in and I'm well over what I earn now, by nearly £500 a month.

I'm currently working between 5 and 6 days a week for a crap wage and it really is killing me. My doctor wanted me investigated for stress and anxiety last week. I feel like I'm constantly at work. I've asked to reduce my hours and they're ignoring me.

3 days a week for more pay? Never missing out on social events? And if I'm in NHS bank I can go back in the pension?

It seems a no brainier.

How unreasonable would it be to not tell DH what I'm doing? He's not very understanding and can be a tad controlling so no matter how much I want to do this and believe it will work, if he says no I'll be stuck doing what I'm doing.

If I just go ahead and do it and in a few months admit it and show him how it's worked for us (more money for a start!) he'd have no cause for complaint

OP are you newly qualified? As you are only on 21k that suggests you are bottom of band 5 so newly qualified. If you're not then you need to get into payroll as you should be on more than that!
I worked NHS bank as a HCA and there were always shifts available, although Sundays and bank holiday shifts were difficult to come by as the pay was better.

I qualified last year. My pay goes up to around £22,500 at the end of this month :-)

One thing to bear in mind op is that agency nursing is often in care homes and whilst ive heard people scoff at burning home nurses as not being proper nurses that forget that in a nursing home there is rarely a duty doctor, night matron, on call managers. Especially in a night and weekend you very often are the only qualified nurse on duty and the buck stops with you. Considering you've only been qualified for a year are you ready for that level of responsibility? Some are but some definitely aren't.

God damn spelling mistakes. Nursing not burning and they not that.

This isn't nursing homes, it's an NHS hospital and a private hospital. The NHS bank is just two hospital sites.

If you're daft enough not to be in the pension how can you trust yourself to be making the correct financial decision?

That's quite rude, I'm a top Band 6 and Im not in the NHS pension either scheme eitehr (and neitehr is my colleague) , not because I'm "daft" but because i cant afford the £280 it would cost me every month.

I have done this and ended up getting sent to the worst areas and wasn't supported. If you are really confident and can happily go in and take full charge of the ward you will be fine but I was too nervous and didn't want to make a mistake. I know someone who made her first meds error ever and followed procedure. The agency were really harsh with her

I would apply for a new part time nursing job and top up with bank shifts if it were me. Completely agree that if you cannot afford a pension then you shouldn't be considering leaving a permanent job. Why don't you want to tell DH? Because you know he will say you are crazy?

Sorry just to add that like a previous poster said, all the permanent staff on my ward are currently doing all of the extra shifts, not many are going out to bank - as staff are looking extra pay at this time of year. Couldn't tell you the last time I saw agency midwives on my ward.

Are you working short shifts if you're doing 6 days a week. Can you do long days instead or just work 3 nights for a while? Better pay on nights as you know.

My pension contribution is about £300 a month. Can't bring myself to opt out but I inwardly cry when I get my payslips.

No because the payments are too expensive. DH earns £35k a year and puts £80 into his pension per month. I'm on £21k and was having to put £120 in a month as well as pay my student loan out of my wages. If you can afford it, you can't afford it.

But you said you could get by on DHs wage if you had to?

If you haven't had £120/month spare for pension, you really can't afford to go agency and have weeks with low shifts, sick days etc.

DH earns £35k a year and puts £80 into his pension per month

You do know you are both going to be living in poverty in old age right? A contribution of 2.7% is going to provide, um, about £fuckall for retirement.