'NHS staff have been pushed to the limit'

A nursing associate said she has had to borrow money from her son and sleep in her car to make ends meet.

Penny McGonagle, 46. from Norwich, has been working while studying for the past four years to become a nurse and said many of her colleagues were also overworked and struggling financially.

She said: "People are going off sick because they're stressed out, because they've been pushed to the limit. They're mentally unwell."

The Royal College of Nursing announced strikes on 15 and 20 December in its pay dispute with the government

The Department of Health and Social Care said: "The government has agreed to the recommendations of the independent pay review body and prioritised the NHS with £6.6bn of investment over the next two years.

"Any further pay increase would mean taking money away from front-line services."