I watched closely the people who looked after my dad. Caring for other people’s parents on poverty pay…
We will end the scandal where people who care for people’s parents are on poverty wages – it’s not acceptable.
These words from Prime Minister Andy Burnham during the 2026 Labour Party conference continued his personal and emotive foregrounding of care. Borne from his family’s experiences, the prominence and recognition given to care – including the pay and conditions of care workers – are refreshing. There are already significant changes underway through the 2025 Employment Rights Act and related Fair Pay Agreements for adult social care workers. The recent announcement of the first ever National Collective Pension Scheme for care workers offers further encouragement with addressing care worker poverty in later life. The job of meaningfully confronting these deep-rooted issues is a tough one, however, and here we share examples from our research that demonstrate this before offering reflections on the way forward.
Very low pay in adult social care is pervasive and long-standing
A key researcher on care work in the UK, Lydia Hayes, refers to the remuneration for direct care workers in English adult social care as ‘very low pay’. The ingrained, pervasive nature of this very low pay manifests itself in ways that have been apparent across our Centre for Care research.
Nick Morgan’s research on care workers’ financial well-being draws on a collaboration with the Care Workers’ Charity. The very existence of the Care Workers’ Charity represents an indictment of care workers’ treatment. Since 2020 the charity has supported over 14,000 care workers with financial support grants of up to £500 (and is constantly over-subscribed). The Prime Minister is right to use the word ‘poverty’: around half of these financial support grants were paid towards care workers’daily living costs, such as food and utility bills. A high proportion of grant recipients also required help purchasing essential household items. Many had additional financial needs that the Care Workers’ Charity grant could only partially cover. They were often not motivated by money, but that did not prevent a sense of anxiety, panic, or even shame when they were in deep financial distress. While care workers dedicate their time to prioritising others, some spoke about wishing to afford an ‘ordinary life’ for themselves, with modest luxuries like holidays and freedom from daily worries about debt.
Duncan Fisher and Liam Foster’s research on organising and trade union activity among direct care workers shows how far there is to go before this group has a more appropriate standard of pay and conditions. Fisher and Foster observed that the most common causes that care workers and those who represent them campaign on are basic terms – such as sick pay and secure hours – that are taken for granted in other sectors. A trade union celebrating the negotiation of improved – but still minimal – sick pay provision exemplifies the nature of the struggle in adult social care for fundamental occupational welfare. A union organiser from this research noted that experiences of poverty also led to the use of foodbanks among workers in the sector:
Fortunately, I don’t have to use a food bank, but it’s mainstream, I think, in the sector, for some people.
Fisher and Foster’s ongoing pensions research reveals concerns that the very low pay that care workers experience during their working lives translates to a risk of poverty in retirement. The dynamics of pensions schemes that lack generosity – of course exacerbated by the very low levels of pay and possibilities for savings contributions – are made worse in adult social care where groups such as women and migrants are over-represented. The government’s efforts to enhance the quality of this work therefore stands to have significant implications for addressing gender inequality and other social inequalities.
Reflections on the government’s care work conditions reform agenda
We commend the Prime Minister and government for focusing on improving care workers’ pay and conditions, and acknowledge that reforms already underway will bring welcome change. Time is of the essence, however, because politics can move quickly, and the government’s resolve on this may not be matched by those who follow in the potentially very near future. More importantly, care workers have waited too long for meaningful improvements to their pay, conditions, and broader work circumstances, and are impatient for change.
The deficiencies in care workers’ employment offer are wide-ranging, and can be observed in the causes they campaign on, the state of their pensions, and the efforts charities and food banks make to support them. We agree with the Prime Minister that this is unacceptable, and contend that broad reform should also aim to enhance this work’s status, and challenge the stigma it at times attracts. We are buoyed by the focus on a wide range of conditions including and beyond basic pay, such as pensions, sick pay, and other occupational welfare. There are additional less prominent issues that require attention, such as inadequate pay for travel and waiting time, and consideration of how care workers can avoid paying work-related costs, such as for work clothing or vehicle maintenance.
Political challenges and arguments over affordability of enhancing conditions for such a large workforce will surface, and require plausible and politically palatable responses. The government’s wider focus on care worker pay and conditions is very much welcome but long overdue, and should initiate sustained commitment to raising and subsequently maintaining care work’s standing. The Prime Minister’s moral argument about the unacceptability of conditions recalls the comment of care worker Claude (from our organising research) about his union’s successful campaign to improve conditions at the care home where he worked:
Even if you gave me a pay rise, I am not dancing, because I think whatever is coming to us, we deserve it. That’s my reflection. We get what we deserve.
About the authors
In the Centre for Care, Duncan works with Dr Liam Foster in the Care Workforce Change research group. They are currently researching care workers’ organising activities, including their role in trade unions, campaign groups and community organising. This piece introduces the study.
Liam Foster is a Professor in Social Policy and a Co-Director of Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities (CIRCLE) at the University of Sheffield, UK. He specialises in theories of ageing, pensions, extending working lives, care and social inequalities. Professor Foster has developed a national and international profile in ageing and pensions. He has commented on his research in the media, advised unions, been involved in projects with business and charities, and been referenced by political parties.
Nick’s PhD research is supervised by Professor Sue Yeandle and Professor Majella Kilkey working in collaboration with The Care Workers’ Charity with additional supervision from their CEO Karolina Gerlich. It seeks to understand the risks to wellbeing experienced by care workers before and during the Covid-19 pandemic using a mixed-methods approach to analyse applications to the charity’s financial support grants followed by interviews with care workers and stakeholders. It will explore how longstanding issues within social care manifested during the pandemic alongside wider policy debates regarding the role of the welfare state and social issues concerning intersectional inequalities relating to gender, ethnicity and migration.
