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W W W. T H E C A R E R U K . C O M
WE NOW SUPPLY A WIDE RANGE OF FURNITURE
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THECARER_UK
Issue 276
Pressure Mounts as Care Workers Remain Among England’s Lowest Paid
A new report from Skills for Care has laid bare the ongoing pay crisis facing England’s adult social care workforce, warning that the sector faces significant financial strain ahead of April’s National Living Wage increase — with nine in ten independent care providers set to be directly affected. The report, Pay in the Adult Social Care Sector in England as at December 2025 provides the most up-to-date snapshot of care worker pay drawing on the latest workforce data and paints a stark picture of a sector where chronic underfunding is suppressing wages, eroding career progression and leaving hundreds
of thousands of workers teetering on or near the legal minimum. The median hourly rate for a care worker in the independent sector stood at £12.60 in December 2025 — just 39 pence above the current National Living Wage (NLW) of £12.21. While this represents a 5% increase (60 pence per hour) since March 2025, outpacing inflation of 2.8% and delivering a real-terms gain of 26 pence per hour, the figures underline just how narrow the margins are for the sector’s 1.5 million workers.
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