Nursing staff revealed the added financial burden is damaging their home lives.
Community nurses are up to £300 a month out of pocket amid the skyrocketing cost of fuel.
In a survey of 233 community nursing staff undertaken by NursingNotes, the vast majority of respondents (74%) said they could no longer afford to stay in their role due to fuel prices reaching more than £2.00 per litre in many parts of the country.
Most community nursing staff can only claim 56p per mile for the first 3,500 and 20p per mile after this. With many community staff averaging more than 10,000 miles annually, most are left significantly out of pocket.
A £60 per month ‘wear and tear’ payment to staff has also been cut.
In the same survey, community nurses also said the added financial pressures are damaging their personal relationships (36%) and causing added stress at home (61%).
It comes at a time when the cost of living crisis hits many nurses hard due to a decade of real-terms pay cuts meaning most nurses are already £6,000 a year worse off not than in 2008.
No longer viable.
Community nurse Sally says her job is “no longer viable” due to the added financial pressure it was putting on her family. She admits to now actively looking for employment in a care home or hospital instead.
She explained that only half of her fuel costs are reimbursed under the current arrangements leaving Sally, who covers a large rural area in the South West, around £200 a month out of pocket.
One community nursing assistant admitted they had been forced to take out a new credit card just to be able to afford to work.
Responding to the survey, Nurses United UK Lead Organiser Anthony Johnson said, “Everyone knows that this Government are lying when they say they care about public sector workers.
“They are putting patients at risk by failing to increase mileage payments. We come into this job because we care, not because we want to subsidise services.
“Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak could prioritise nurses getting to their patients – they have chosen not to. We must remember this when we vote.”
