1 in 5 health workers has extra job to make ends meet
One in five health workers have revealed they have at least one extra job because they cannot survive on an NHS salary.
A Unison survey of over 3,300 NHS employees found some had started their own business or did extra hospital shifts to make ends meet.
And despite this, over half said they were still overdrawn on their bank accounts each month.
Two in five health workers said they relied on credit cards, while 13% had resorted to payday loans.
Nurses, midwives, ambulance drivers, hospital porters and other health workers are due to stage a walkout from 7am on Monday in protest at the government's decision not to accept a recommended 1% pay rise for all staff.
Unison's head of health Christina McAnea said: "The Government is refusing to acknowledge that there is a real poverty problem affecting NHS workers.
"A demotivated, stressed workforce is bad for patients and bad for the NHS.
"In Britain today, we have NHS workers struggling to buy food, pay for their bills and who, as a result, fall into a cycle of debt and despair. Morale in the NHS is at an all time low.
"NHS workers work day in day out to provide vital care and support for millions of patients so they deserve fair pay. A full time hospital cleaner should not have to deliver pizzas after work to make ends meet.
"It's time NHS workers get a fair deal for the invaluable work they do. The Government needs to step back from the brink and reconsider its pay policy urgently."
Under current plans only NHS workers at the top of their band will get the pay rise.
Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: "At a time when MPs are set for a 10% pay hike, we're told that midwives don't deserve even a below-inflation 1% rise - and politicians wonder why the public does not afford them more respect."
A Department of Health spokesman said: "We are disappointed that trade unions are taking industrial action.
"NHS staff are our greatest asset, and we've increased the NHS budget to pay for over 12,500 more clinical staff since 2010.
"We cannot afford a pay rise in addition to increments - which disproportionately reward the highest earners - without risking frontline jobs."