A carer with 26 years' service has been made homeless by the savage pay cuts imposed by her privateering bosses at Care UK.

A distraught Mags Dalton talked to the Morning Star yesterday as workers in Doncaster unleashed their 35th walkout standing up to the company’s poverty pay.

Speaking from the Unison picket lines, the 44-year-old said the care service’s privatisation would soon force her to move back to her parents’ house 100 miles away in Newcastle.

Ms Dalton is one of scores of staff transferred from the NHS to profit-making Care UK last September — and forced onto poverty pay.

“It’s time for us to stand up and be counted — and say No to austerity,” she said.

But tragically, no longer able to afford the rent, she will have to leave her Doncaster comrades behind.

“I’ve lost my home — and I don’t know where I’ll go,” she said.

“I’ve got family up north near Newcastle, so I suppose I’ll move in with my parents or someone else.

“I’m now living in a little box room, using a suitcase as a bedside table. I’ve had half my furniture taken away, and I’m just preparing to leave Doncaster now.”

She said she had lost £400 in pay this month as a result of the cuts.

“Front-line workers are being told to deal with rising living costs on less pay, and we’re the ones who keep the country going,” she added.

Unison members will have taken 48 days of strike action come their next walkout on August 12 as they push for a fair deal for transferred workers and the £7.65 living wage for new staff.

Unison steward Andy Squires said care workers were making an “extremely big sacrifice.”

He said: “Management have not shown any signs of budging yet, which is why we’re back out on strike despite how much pay we’re losing.

“I’ve had to cut my phone contract off, and stay at home most evenings because the money just isn’t there.

“We’re all facing much tighter budgets anyway with attacks on terms and conditions, so losing even more money is tough.

“But we won’t let them get away with this.”

And he called for the Con-Dem government to bring an end to poverty pay.

“It would be great to see the living wage become the minimum wage,” he said. “Workers all over the country are fighting for the living wage and winning, and hopefully we can win this struggle too.”