Anyone else on an incredibly low wage? How do you manage?

[Fruitandbarley1]

Luckily I have 2 jobs, one which pays better but my first job in a care home pays £11 an hour, so 58p above minimum wage. I am applying for one better paid full time job rather than having 2 separate ones.
I know it's poorly paid because it's seen as unskilled and as a 'women's job'.

For that wage I deal with daily sexual, verbal and physical abuse, people who are doubly incontinent, medical emergencies, people who are having psychotic episodes and so on. Often don't get the full (unpaid) break.
I know it'll never change so I'm leaving sadly as much as I find it rewarding and love the residents.

Luckily my other work pays better so I'm trying to do that full time.
I flat share with my partner but if I were to live alone I'd be spending around 65% of my income on a small one bed flat. It's wrong in this day and age. Partner isn't well paid either but is also going for better work.
I have £80 per week for food, toiletries, all socialising, any extras. I know it's more than a lot of people have though, and we don't have children. Just interested to see how others cope on a low wage.
I usually find with colleagues that they're married to a higher earner or also receiving universal credit.

And people wonder why social care is on it's arse and can't recruit and hospitality has no staff.

OP your thread hit a chord with me as I'm trying to struggle through. Solo.

I'm doing MSc for a better future whilst at the same time trying to relinquish responsibility for elderly relatives and escape a not very nice living environment.

It sounds like you need a more long term plan about work? What do you think things would be about making you happier and more stable? It can be done though, lots of us have been in undesirable situations but got out

But this shouldn’t be the case. Everyone shouldn’t have to retrain so they are not careworkers and earn more. It’s outrageous that we don’t value this work and pay people proper wages for doing it. Society would be in a complete mess if everyone did a course and retrained.

It’s a disgrace the wage of a carer. Looking after children or the elderly should be acknowledged with decent pay but it will never happen as it’s mainly viewed as women’s work.

https://www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs?keywords=Remote

Lots of jobsin different sectors available here that pay better than what you're earning currently.

Have you looked at your local college for courses ?

Can you drive ? Some driving jobs pay more

Do you know anyone that can introduce you to a job in another industry, some employers offer "recommend a friend schemes"

If you want to change jobs, you need to be proactive

Your dream job is not going to just materialise !

Research
Apply

I agree that jobs seen as male pay more

On 10.50 an hour and thats with an increase on 1st Apr.

Its difficult. Everything is a compromise.

Oh my god not this AGAIN!!!

The answer is not and should not be “re-train and get a better job”.

Somebody has to be a carer, to collect the refuse, to assist in schools and nurseries. We need these people. And they deserve to be able to live on their full-time wage.

I wonder why you’re working in such a low paid role? Yes it’s essential, but so are call centre staff and supermarket workers, and they get paid more and don’t have to deal with violence or assault.

I expect the percentage of care home workers who are full-time, able-bodied, and don’t have children is relatively low. Most will do it for shift flexibility to accommodate other parts of their life and be topped up with benefits.

It is shocking you are paid so little for your work. I do some housekeeping in a care home on top of my normal job. The carers there were paid £10.50 going up to £10.90 now which is outrageous. I noticed a care home in next village along are advertising at £13.50 so the last of the British staff will disappear. Most of the carers are from Sri Lanka and are tied to the care home for two years due to visa sponsorship.

Our society allows corporations to exist even though they don’t pay living wages. We fund corporate welfare by topping up the lowest paid with benefits. 40% of UC claimants are in work. Make no mistake this 40% is really corporate welfare. Corporations should pay a living wage.

I am sorry you are struggling, OP, I hope you can find that better paid job that doesn’t expose you to daily abuse.

I'm on a wage similiar to you and husband is just on slightly more. We have children but get no help either except for the child benefit that everyone gets unless a latent makes over 50k or something. No tax credits, universal credit.

We manage well as we are lucky enough to have bought our own home years ago, stretched out our mortgage payments so don't pay much per month compared to renters in our area. Unfortunately people struggle to get on the property ladder and have to rent despite the fact they'd probably be better off with a mortgage, but while renting can't save a deposit or the bank won't lend.

Also we live in a cheaper area, we are in Scotland in a nice area but house prices aren't as high.

I do often wonder if we didn't have a minimum wage would companies still be trying to pay lots of people £5 per hour ?

Yes, they would.

Long ago, decades before NMW, I worked full time and then some in hospitality as a holiday job and got 30 pence an hour, when the average full time manual female wage was 50 pence an hour,

(Full time manual male wage was 95 pence, BTW)

I have a friend who works minimum wage as a TA and has since graduating. It baffles me. She’s single and healthy with no children, and always complaining about being poor.

It can only be that she likes the holidays, the hours, being around children and the lack of responsibility more than decent pay.

She has other options, as do you OP.

I earn less than you as a top of pay scale TA with 9 years of school experience. It’s disgraceful how little we are valued (and consequently paid). I have a masters degree and expertise in phonics and SEN. I could not survive on my pay alone. I see my role as a vocation and am able to do it as my DH is well paid.

I work at a pre-school, £10.40 an hour. It’s a joke really when everyone who works there has been to college full time for at least two years. Supermarket wages are more! My husbands earns more, and we get a top up from UC. Also in a HA house so rent isn’t crazy.

@Fruitandbarley1

When my grandma was elderly we employed private carers who were self employed - one of the girls I'm still friends with.

She charges £18 per hour mon-fri (more on weekends and evenings) and does caring/ companionship work in people's homes. She also does some cleaning, laundry, ironing, shopping, visits to places, taking people to appointments etc....

She used to work in a care home but started this about 5 years ago never looked back. Have you considered it??

My friend says if you pay an agency it's around £18-19 per hour and the worker gets about £11 of it, this way you'd get all the money. She's built up a good regular clientele and is always busy.

She has A DBS, then insurance which is about £30 a month and then she has business useage insurance on her car but she's a lot better off and if any of the clients are rude or abusive she can refuse to go!

I did care work many years ago and it's really not worth it for the money. I was seen as unskilled yet was expected to perform tasks far above my pay grade. If these tasks didn't get done then the impact was always on the residents.

Have you looked at jobs at your local hospital? The conditions aren't any better but at least you get extra pay for overtime and unsocial hours.

My job is full time and £16k a year. I’m a disabled single parent. I get UC, child benefit, maximum PIP: both components, maintenance from ex husband and a family member gives me some money if needed.

It's shocking, isn't it, that people who are naturally inclined to, are skilled and experienced in, and are good at "support" type jobs like TAs and carers are paid so poorly. These people are needed by society, yet they're expected to scrape by.

Oh I absolutely think it’s disgraceful. But I don’t think that the govt topping up low wages with benefits is the answer. If employers find it hard to get staff for minimum wage they will have to pay more. While people are getting benefit top ups and working for NMW they have in less incentive to go and get something better paid. So we need to stop the cycle of the tax payer paying for companies to get away with low wages.

If there was a sustained and genuine shortage of people to do the jobs that are necessary, the wages go up. That's how the market works.

People on this thread are so snobby about this kind of work and look down their noses at people who work full time in these valued jobs.

Clearly they learnt nothing from the pandemic.

I can only assume that people who think this is the answer are quite happy with a lack of essential workers like carers and TA's, well until that lack affects them personally that is.
Tend to have found in RL the people that feel this way aren't shy about demanding top service from these job roles either when they need them.

That said, the attitude is the prevailing one because despite shortages, things aren't changing, so shortages just get worse. I moved from social care back to hospitality because it's paying more.
So I did exactly what others are advising the OP to do, I shouldn't have been pushed into doing that though, not because I'm special or anything else like that, but because with an ageing population that isn't necessarily a healthy one, care workers are in increasing need and decreasing supply, and no one, least of all the government, are even attempting to address that.
So people will choose what's more financially viable for them, but that shouldn't be pushing people out of the jobs that we need. Promoting that is really short sighted imo, although I do agree that it's probably the only way that someone like the OP can earn enough to live on, which isn't great for society.