AN OXFORDSHIRE charity supporting autistic adults has launched a campaign to give care workers a pay rise.

Autism at Kingwood, which also has clients from Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, is urging people to sign a petition calling on the Government to ensure care workers receive the real living wage of £9.30 per hour.

The charity, which provides support for more than 130 autistic adults and employs 235 social care staff, shared their costings to illustrate how current local authority funding is not enough to pay social care workers the Real Living Wage.

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Autism at Kingwood CEO Kate Allen commented: "Covid-19 has revealed just how much we rely on our nation's social care workers and the risks that they take to do their job.

"This year there were no funds to offer a cost of living pay increase and as we progress through 2020, with the increasing costs and uncertainty of Covid-19, there is still little chance of getting sufficient funding to offer a pay increase to social care staff.

"Despite them literally placing their lives at risk to fulfil their role to the charity and society, there is no capacity to reward them."