WELSH workers in the public sector are having to pawn possessions and skip meals because their pay is so low, a shocking study by Unison has reported.

Unison Cymru/Wales published the results of a survey today that reveals the extremes to which workers are being driven as wage values plummet and prices soar.

Six thousand workers took part and revealed the devastating impact of the cost-of-living crisis by telling some of their stories.

Vanessa, a kitchen assistant in Torfaen, said: “My son is disabled with cerebral palsy on benefits and lives in a bungalow on his own.

“His gas and electric have gone up from £85 to £185 per month and he’s asked me when he should put the heating on.

“I am worrying how I will keep subsidising him on the money I earn. It’s not feasible.”

Alison, a public service worker in Powys, said: “The family supermarket shop used to cost £60, now the same shop costs me £90.

“The Conservatives don’t care about working-class people.”

The study revealed 404 people among respondents had pawned possessions in order to get by while 1,025 have gone without meals and 274 workers had used a foodbank.

Unison Cymru/Wales regional secretary Dominic MacAskill said: “We are living under a Tory Westminster government whose mini-budget overtly benefits the richest members of society at the same time as undermining the needs of the vast majority of people.

“There is now a stark division between them and us and a pressing need for a broader trade union and labour movement-led socialist response.”

Unison is to ballot NHS workers in Wales on strike action.

Tomorrow the union will stage a cost-of-living crisis rally at Cardiff’s Radisson Blu Hotel from 5.30 to 7pm.