Working in the UK as an OFW

vandiola · Aug 31, 2016

Expenses depends on a lot of things. Do you already have a job offer in the UK as there are some trusts that offer short term accommodation to help you get settled.

1. Cost of accommodation really varies across all of England (I live in England, so can only provide details about here). In the north accommodation is considerably less costly than the south. You can probably rent a 2 bedroom house/flat for around Â£600. The south outside of London is generally expensive and you may want to consider house sharing to start off with. If you house share with about 3 or 4 people you can pay as little as Â£300 - Â£400 a month, but you'll have a lot less privacy and possibly higher bills to cover. Within London, most single people house share, and I know of Filipino nurses who come to London in groups and can live with about 4 or 5 people to one house and pay about Â£500 - Â£600 per room in a house share. If you wanted your own space you could rent a studio but that can cost upwards of Â£1000, it will be a significant portion of your wages. In London you do get London weighting which is a bit of extra money to counter the costs of living in London, but this depends on which area of London you work in but in reality this barely covers anything.

2. Again council tax varies depending on where you live. In the North it can be as little as Â£70 a month and in London it can be as high as Â£150 a month, but that is for dwelling, not the amount of people who live in a house. Utilities also vary, they can be cheap but you must shop around. The more people there are in a residence the higher the bills will be, but at least you share it out.

3. You work full time hours a week which is 37.5 hours. This equates to do doing 3X12.5 hours for 3 weeks and 4X12.5 for 1 week in a month to equate to full time hours pay. Of course the amount of shifts you do in a week varies depending on the ward and staffing, but you should technically only do between 12 and 15 shifts a month. Your management can always ask you to do extra shifts, but you can say no. You can also ask to do extra shifts, it's totally up to you.

4. Food again varies, but not as much as housing and utilities. Supermarkets tend to be affordable and you'll find all the food you need there and there are specialty Asian stores in larger cities, especially if there are already Filipino communities there, but they tend to be very expensive.

One thing to consider would also be commuting costs. Getting the bus and train can be expensive as can owning a car and paying for parking. Some hospitals offer bus services and rail cards to assist with these costs.

I live in the Midlands but used to work in London :)

mcurie · Sep 3, 2016

Yes, I do have a job offer from a hospital in Lincolnshire. The trust will pay 2 months of accomodation offered by Progress Living UK. Thanks for the comprehensive info! :)

vandiola · Sep 3, 2016

Lincolnshire is in the Midlands, so it's a reasonably affordable place to live. I assume you'll be working at Grantham hospital? I've not worked there myself but did meet a Filipino nurse in London who worked there originally who said it was a nice place to work in, and it already has a small Filipino community so you won't be alone

mcurie · Sep 9, 2016

I was offered a post at Lincoln County Hospital, but just now I am planning to apply to a different trust in London hehe. Thanks again!

vandiola · Sep 11, 2016

I was offered a post at Lincoln County Hospital, but just now I am planning to apply to a different trust in London hehe. Thanks again!

I totally understand. If my circumstances were different I would have stayed in London. Best of luck in your career.