rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/letter/help-with-a-living-wage-for-care-workers?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-letter-area-help-with-a-living-wage-for-care-workers' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Citizens UK https://actionnetwork.org/groups/citizens-uk https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg 20 years ago Citizens UK leaders in East London, angry at the rates of poverty and precarity across London, first took action for a real Living Wage. Fast forward to today, we’re celebrating Living Wage Week and the huge success of the campaign. £1.6 billion has gone back into the pockets of low paid workers. 300,000 workers benefitting. A pay rise for hundreds of thousands today to the new real Living Wage rates of £9.90 and £11.05 in London. But not for me. As a care worker and a care recipient, every day I see how important the fight for a real Living Wage still is for far too many people. Almost 5 million workers are still paid below the real Living Wage and almost 700,000 of those are care workers like me. We look after the most vulnerable in society, but we have been forgotten ourselves. Despite our calls, the Government hasn’t acted – we need to keep the pressure on to call for funding for a Living Wage in social care. So, will you write to your MP? Every week I work at an organisation that supplies food for care workers who simply do not earn enough to even put food on the table. New research today shows that 56% of care workers skip meals due to low pay. Enough is enough. Care workers were at the frontline during the pandemic, we made huge sacrifices, in our relationships, our time, our own health. These are sacrifices we made to protect the country’s vulnerable; it is time the country looks after us. The government has so far refused to acknowledge the debt that this country owes us. Join me in putting pressure on our MPs to bring this to the government’s attention. These letters are vital - as without the government agreeing to fund social care, it will be much harder to secure a real Living Wage for many thousands of care workers. Your MP can speak to the Minister for Social Care on our behalf, but they need to know that this matters to you. Through our collective power we can force through change. You can write to them today. Thank you  - your solidarity in this time of crisis means so much to me and my care worker friends. Together we can win a wage that care workers can live on. Sherrie https://actionnetwork.org/letters/help-with-a-living-wage-for-care-workers