The number of nurses using payday loans to get by has almost doubled in three years to 35,000.
Unions have called for an end to the one per NHS pay rise cap that has left nurses with a 14 per cent cut in real terms and forced them into debt.
Payday lender CashFloat.co.uk’s research found that 11 per cent of nurses had applied to them for loans since January 2015, up from just six per cent in 2013.
Josie Irwin, of the Royal College of Nursing , said: “It’s no surprise. They put up with the rise in the cost of living because of their commitment to caring for patients, but they can only be stretched so far.”
She said the one per cent pay rise cap was “unsustainable”, and added: “It is not just about paying staff fairly, it is also a patient safety issue as it is causing a recruitment and retention crisis in the NHS.”
A nurse from Buckinghamshire said: “My salary has been frozen for six years. I always end up needing more money.”
And another, a mother of one from Hackney, said she had considered leaving the NHS through stress. She added: “Besides long hours and intense pressure at work, I am forced to take payday loans to pay my bills and support my family.”
Unison’s Christina McAnea said: “Nurses are suffering terrible financial hardship after years of being hammered financially by the Government.”
Jeremy Lloyd, of CashFloat, said: “We hope that by releasing this data it will draw attention to the hardships being faced by these undervalued caregivers.”
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “We will continue to fund public sector pay awards, including for NHS staff, at an average of one per cent next year.”
'They feel like they can’t do their job'
Danielle Tiplady recently completed her adult nursing course at King’s College, London.
She said payday loans, food banks and university hardship funds were all becoming necessities for herself and her cash-strapped colleagues.
Danielle, 29, said: “The alarming thing is a large number of nurses and students do use food banks and access hardship funds from universities. I do night shifts, weekends, bank holidays. I work during my actual holidays.
“I’m happy to do whatever when I’m there and I get stuck in because I know I’m part of the NHS. People who have this passion, I look and I see how upset they all are, and how tired they are, and they’re crying. They feel like they can’t do their job.”