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Trainee nurses are increasingly ­turning to food banks and payday loans as they struggle to afford their training.

A Sunday People investigation can reveal how in the past three years, a whopping £5.2million has been paid in hardship grants.

Around 6,500 nurses have received help - and unions warn that nurses who start training next year face finishing with £52,000 of debt.

That is leading to more nurses arriving at food banks to help feed their families or calling payday lenders to keep on top of bills.

Marina Down, 23, a single mum in London training to become a nurse, says her lowest point came when she was forced to visit a food bank with her daughter.

“That’s how desperate it can get,” she says. “I’m very grateful for it but I’m a single mother trying to feed myself, my child, and give as much as possible to my patients. It’s not easy.”

The alarming situation comes amid a crisis in the health service that is only set to deepen.

Around one in three NHS nurses is set to retire in the next five years as one in 10 posts currently remain empty.

It means the need to train up recruits is even more important.

But Janet Davies, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Thanks to years of short-term thinking, the UK is completely unprepared to deal with the challenges posed by an ageing workforce, increasing demand and now the uncertainty caused by leaving the EU.”

To fight rising levels of poverty, student unions have set up food banks to help nurses faced with a choice between eating or studying to save lives.

Has the decision to scrap the NHS bursary affected you? Tell us using the form at the bottom of the page

Shelly Asquith, vice president of welfare at the National Union of Students, said some trainee nurses have even been forced into the arms of payday lenders or to apply for benefits.

She said: “These are people who are training to do a job to keep people healthy, because they care about looking after people. And they don’t have the capability to provide for themselves.”

She added: “I think it’s a problem that doesn’t get spoken about enough. A lot of students who are living in poverty feel ashamed about it.

“Being a student is seen as a rite of passage – you go out and have the time of your life – but for a lot of people that’s just not the case.

“They’re really struggling to feed themselves and their families. A couple of student unions, like East Anglia, set up food banks last year because they knew a lot of their members were struggling, and were accessing community food banks.

“This is something that more and more unions are speaking about, because more students are asking them for help. But a lot still don’t, because of the stigma of living in poverty.

Our own research shows that NHS-funded students are twice as likely to need extra financial support.”

It isn’t only nurses that are being affected.

Midwives will also be hit by the planned bursary changes, and have staged a series of mass demonstrations alongside their nursing colleagues.

In February it emerged student grants for dentists and doctors could be slashed – crushing the dreams of those from poorer backgrounds hoping to get into medicine.

It came after the Chancellor announced the changes for nurses in November’s Budget.

Paul Blaylock, of the British Dental Association, warned: “If funding is cut for student dentists, the Government will shut talented young people out of the profession.”

In September 2017, NHS bursaries paid to students will be cut and replaced with loans.

But unions warn this will land them with up to £52,000 worth of tuition fee and maintenance loan debt after a three-year course, putting ­people off entering the public health system.

The union Unison warns it would cause a “perfect storm” in NHS nursing. Gail Adams, Unison’s lead nurse, said: “You’ll see an even greater reliance on them [trainee nurses] having to receive social support and go to food banks.

“These are not students who are living a ­luxurious ­lifestyle – far from it.

Students’ union chief Mrs Asquith said: “The added pressure is creating a mental health crisis at the same time. It’s no wonder that so many students are saying if the bursary is scrapped they won’t apply.”

NUS research published last year revealed four in five ­students had experienced mental health issues, with around a third admitting to suicidal thoughts. Two years earlier a similar survey found one in five had mental health concerns.

Mrs Asquith says: “I think it’s a deliberate ­attempt to undermine the NHS. They know students are less likely to enrol if they’re getting into debt and can’t pay their bills. The bursary is a direct link to the NHS. It comes from the NHS, rather than the ­student loans company, so they feel part of the family.

“Students are being more aggressively targeted by private providers and agencies, and more are ­going into private healthcare providers. Mass shortages in the NHS are being created, and the Government is using it to say the NHS isn’t working.”

A report from the Institute for Economic Studies for the Migration Advisory Committee said not enough was being done to fill the additional roles left when the one in three nurses currently over 50 soon retire.

Report author Rachel Marangozov said: “The Government needs to act now to ensure that the UK has a domestic supply of nurses. This will require adequate and sustained investment in workforce planning.”

Case study 1: "We'll end up paying £26 an hour for our training"

Staff shortages in the NHS mean that student nurses are ­standing in as healthcare assistants and, under the present bursary system, can earn up to £3 an hour.

But when bursaries are scrapped for loans, students will effectively have to shell out £26 an hour for their training, says Anthony Johnson, president of the Nursing and Midwifery Society at King’s College in London.

Mr Johnson, 23, said: “We have 10,000 nurse vacancies in London. Students are often used as healthcare assistants to subsidise trust’s staffing costs. We literally work for the £3 an hour that students at most earn from the bursary.”

But he added: “As it is means-tested, many of us don’t even get that. I certainly don’t.”

He said bursaries being replaced with loans was “not a sustainable plan” and had been “imposed with no evidence as to how or why it will improve recruitment in the NHS”.

He said he had to borrow £4,000 from family members just to keep living in London and continue his training.

Mr Johnson added: “We all struggle to survive. My ­bursary in combination with my student loan does not pay for my maintenance costs.

“If I didn’t push myself to work unsafe and unhealthy hours I wouldn’t be able to continue my course, let alone have to access food banks.”

Case study 2: "I ran out of options"

One 38-year-old mature nursing student, from East Anglia, had to use a food bank as she battled to pursue the job she loved. She has asked to remain anonymous.

She said: “I went into nursing with savings but they didn’t go as far as I hoped. I was at the end of my second year of training. I was single then and I’d already borrowed money from friends and family, and ran out of options.

“I’m careful with my money and know how to budget but that can only take you so far. I spoke to my

university about extra support and was basically told to get a job – which I was trying to do.

“The lowest point was walking two miles to Tesco, with the contents of my 2p jar to buy value noodles

and jam and bread. That pushed me to see my tutor and discuss leaving the course – and she pointed me to the food bank.

“Nursing is a tough degree and I’ve heard all kinds of nasty comments – that we shouldn’t expect handouts etc – but it’s not that. Removing the bursary is basically asking us to pay to work.

“We don’t want to be special but we want our contribution recognised. We work hard and cover short staffing issues, even though we are not meant to be counted in the staff numbers. We shouldn’t have to pay to do this.”

Case study 3: "Going to food bank with my daughter was the lowest point'

(Image: Collect Unknown)

Marina Down, 23, is a single mum training in London to become a nurse. Her lowest point came when she was forced to go to a food bank with her daughter, six. She said: “That’s how desperate it can get.

“One month my bursary was delayed so I had to take my girl to a food bank. I know they say they’re going to replace the bursary with a loan. But that means once I’m qualified I’ll have thousands of pounds of debt.

“It doesn’t help that I’m studying in London. I could be better off if I wasn’t but I wanted to go to King’s.

“I shouldn’t be denied the university of my choice ­because I’m short of money.

“I adore nursing. But it’s a gruelling degree, it’s emotionally draining. You’re leaving the house at 7.30 in the morning to look after people for 14 hours. Why would you effectively pay to do that?

“It’s completely demoralising. One of the main things I found was the cuts to the bursary are a small piece in a massive assault on the NHS. But then you step on a ward and it’s all worthwhile.”

Case study 4: 'They’re tired, upset, crying...'

Danielle Tiplady, 29, is four weeks from completing her adult nursing course at King’s College, London.

She has had to use hardship funds to pay for her training and said scrapping bursaries was a kick in the teeth for those dedicated to helping others.

Danielle said: “We’ve been trying to fight the Government because myself and every other nurse who works on the frontline thinks this is a bad idea.

“The bursary isn’t perfect. We don’t get a lot but it makes you part of the NHS.”

She added: “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, I do weekends, I do bank holidays. I work during my actual holidays. I’m happy to do whatever when I’m there and I get really 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.”