We’ve clapped for the carers but with 1.3 million of them in low-paid insecure work we need to pay them

What would carers prefer? A nationwide clap to mark the 72nd birthday of the NHS or a living wage and guaranteed regular hours?

I’m betting on the latter. While the claps that have taken place up and down Britain were well intentioned – and well deserved, given that some of the workers being applauded were, and sometimes still are, literally risking their lives – they haven’t yet changed the fact that 1.3 million of the recipients were in insecure work paying less than the real living wage.

By that, I refer to what’s calculated by the Living Wage Foundation, based on what a worker requires to fund a decent basic standard of living. It currently stands at £9.30 an hour in most of the UK, £10.75 in London to reflect the higher cost of living in the capital.