Young doctors feel the bite of 2.2 per cent pay deal

Young doctors feel the bite of 2.2 per cent pay deal

'It is a real kick in the teeth to doctors, teachers and nurses,' says Dr Philip Smith of the recent 2.2 per cent for doctors. '[It] equates to a pay cut.'

Smith and his girlfriend, both 26, graduated in 2004 from medical school in Nottingham with almost £60,000 in student loans between them.

The combined impact of government cuts and the rising cost of serving student loans mean that the couple are 'running to stand still'. 'Since I qualified my pay hasn't really changed at all because the government has effectively down-banded everybody, our rotas are all over the place and we've ended up working fewer hours as a result of the working time directive,' he says. Smith started work in 2004 on basic pay of £18,000 plus another 60 per cent because he was 'working every hour that God sends'. But EU working time legislation has cut doctors' working week to 56 hours and by 2009 it will be 48 hours - with his overtime pay falling commensurately.

'When I qualified my pay was more than both my mum and dad's put together,' reflects Smith. 'I feel lucky because they helped me out and, together with my brother and sister, we were the first in the family to go to university. But do I feel well off? No, I couldn't say that... The way the media portrays it is that doctors are all loaded. I feel that even some members of my extended family think that. But it's not like that. Frankly, we get excited when we get a free sandwich off the drug rep.'

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couple bought a house in east London and pay a mortgage of £1,650. However Smith's girlfriend has ended up having to work in Oxfordshire where she rents a room in a friend's house for £300 a month. The couple reckon they have no money left over once they have covered mortgage, rent, council tax, utilities and student loan repayments totalling £500 a month. 'People don't understand the difference between the £250,000 GP who's a senior doctor - and they are few and far between - and a junior doctor on the first rungs of the ladder just out of medical school,' he adds.

The couple hope that 'eventually the government will write off [our student loan]. At the moment we do not know how we are going to repay it.'

Sarah Glover, a 28-year-old English teacher at Haverstock School in North London who finished her PGCE in 2005, said she 'almost had a heart attack' when she telephoned the Student Loans Company recently. 'I borrowed about £8,600 and the last statement they gave me, in April 2007, the amount had gone up to £8,856.'

After graduating, Glover taught in Australia and Ireland where her loans increased without her paying off any money. The prospect of her, or her partner Ed Barker, a qualified architect, paying off their debts is still some way in the future. The couple's combined student debt is about £30,000, including credit card and overdrafts. Barker took out a student loan of £12,000 to qualify as an architect.

Glover's salary is £28,500 and Barker's about £30,000. Glover has been on maternity leave since last October, and their daughter, Izri, was born the following month.