A carer who has spent over a decade looking after those in need now faces giving up the job she loves as soaring fuel costs eat up 75% of her wages.
Linda Campbell said she has loved “every minute” of her 12 years as a carer, but expects she’ll soon be forced to give up her profession.
Rocketing fuel costs mean the 69-year-old won’t be able to keep covering her huge patch of west Wales as she is spending three quarters of her wage on fuel, Wales Online reported.
Ms Campbell, from Ceredigion, said she drives almost 1,000miles a month to reach clients’ homes, with many of them living in isolated rural areas.
When asked if she thought she could continue racking up 930miles of travels each month in the long-term, she said: "No, really not. I can't afford to and that's the bottom line."
Ms Campbell is yet another Brit who is seeing their life upended by the cost-of-living crisis that has seen fuel prices increase massively.
The crisis has seen fuel prices rise by 24p a litre on average (to 182.31p), and diesel rising by 30p a litre on average (188.05p), since late February.
This has meant the cost of filling an average family care has topped £100 for petrol and diesel - as demand for non-Russia crude oil has grown and the pound has struggled against the dollar.
Linda said: "I fill my car up almost every day in case of any eventuality, as I'm out in the middle of nowhere a lot of the time.
“I've gone from spending about £20 to £26 a day on petrol. It's becoming unsustainable to actually work this job.
“You get your salary and then 75% of it goes on petrol the following month.
"You think, is it worth it? Well it is in respect of the people I go to visit.
"Every single minute is worth it because without us they would have to go to hospitals or care homes and there are almost no beds in either.
“So what are these dear old people supposed to do? But I also need a salary that's going to support me."
The 69-year-old works four days a week but often does extra days because of the shortage in carers.
She believes the rise in fuel costs will "absolutely" trigger a crisis in social care as more staff leave.
"Anything else, quite honestly, would pay more," she added. "It is a labour of love."
Linda called for the Government to introduce a fuel discount card for care workers and extend the rural fuel duty relief scheme to parts of Wales.
The scheme is designed to ease the burden on people in rural areas where pump prices are higher than average, cutting 5p from the standard fuel duty — but only applies to remote parts of Scotland, the Isles of Scilly and a few areas in England.
"I drive up mountains and through forests to get to people's homes," laughed Linda. "While it's all very beautiful it's not paying my bills."
This all comes as care workers are calling in sick because they cannot afford the fuel to drive their cars, a union leader has said.
The damning revelation came from Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, attacked the Government for "not having a plan" to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
In an interview ahead of the union's annual conference, she warned that staff were flocking from the NHS in greater numbers than could be replaced.
She said staff were heading to the private sector where the pay was better.
She said: "The private sector can afford to pay more, so public sector staff are leaving to work for supermarkets down the road.
"Half of local government workers earn less than £25,000 a year.
"It is now costing care workers £100 to fill up their car. They just cannot afford it."
Care workers would rather call in sick because they do not have the money for petrol, she said.
Ms McAnea said the Government was refusing to meet trade unions to discuss the crisis, adding: "This feels like an out-of-touch Government in its dying days."
Asked about calls from the Government about pay restraint, she said: "They have forgotten what hospital and ambulance staff and care workers did during the pandemic. It's like they want to ignore them now."
