What's going to happen when essential workers can't afford to get to work?

[noblegiraffe]

I was just reading another thread about cutbacks people are making to deal with the price increases, and some people mentioned WFH or WFH more often to save petrol money on going into the office. Petrol and diesel seem to be going up in price daily with no end in sight.

Public transport isn't cheap either, and prices go up in line with inflation.

Not that public transport is always an option - my school has very poor public transport links.

Obviously everyone is affected by price increases, but with real terms pay cuts promised by the government for several key public sector areas, how are they going to be able to guarantee a workforce that can actually afford to get to work? A couple of teachers leaving my dept for other schools cited cost of commute as a factor.

Thinking of the keyworkers - those who were so essential to the running of the country that they had to go out to work during a pandemic when everyone else had to stay at home. What is the plan to enable them to keep going out to work during this cost of living crisis?

Employers will have to pay more, or they won’t be able to recruit enough staff.

Normal economic supply and demand.

Did you miss the bit where the government is not going to pay more, rather pay less, to public sector workers?

It's not just the public sector that has keyworkers.

I'm wondering this too. I work as a carer going to people's homes. We get quite good mileage rates compared to other companies but the fuel price rises have already driven some of my colleagues back into nursing homes or other jobs.
In conversation with my husband only this morning, we agreed that I'll stay because I love the job and we can afford it. And that's only because he's wfh and our mortgage is almost paid. But it'll get to the point where it'll feel like I'm volunteering.

Yes, I know. How are they going to get to work? Are there plans to pay them more (I suspect not in a lot of cases).

And what then?

We get quite good mileage rates compared to other companies but the fuel price rises have already driven some of my colleagues back into nursing homes or other jobs.

I was thinking about carers in particular as they are already very low paid so price increases will disproportionately affect them.

I'm guessing mileage rates are in no way keeping up with the daily fuel price increases.

Most of our clients are self funding, so any increased we get will come from them, but we also have council funded clients and some of their visit times have been reduced. I imagine more people will lose the option to be cared for at home, because fewer people will be able to do my job.
Maybe community care will become more localised so carers will be able to walk or bike it, but my company covers rural areas so not possible as things currently stand.
If pushed, I could work as a hca in a few places within walking/bus distance.
I think things may have to change considerably in many walks of life. It'll be q bumpy ride though.

Yes, absolutely, @noblegiraffe
I am in an extremely privileged position of doing the job because I want to.
I think the system will break soon unless a lot of money is thrown at it, and I see no sign of that happening.
And the most vulnerable will suffer. Clients and carers

The main issue with essential workers is housing costs, hence some schools having teachers who live a distance away and therefore cannot easily get in when the roads grind to a halt with one inch of snow.

It won't happen overnight and as with all societal change there will be considerable pain for some in the process, but would it be such a bad thing if people "had" to work closer to home?

Im ups3 and tried to get a job closer to where i live last term. Diesel near me is now 199.9. Anyway, they hired the trainee.

How do you ensure that people can get jobs near their homes? Moving costs over £10k to start with, so that isn't an option for struggling established families.

Of course, that's what I meant by the pain of societal change. It's going to be really really tough for a lot of people

The main issue with essential workers is housing costs

Historically. Travelling costs however are quickly becoming a huge concern.

but would it be such a bad thing if people "had" to work closer to home?

You know those really sought-after schools where house prices within catchment are insane....do you think teachers and school staff can afford them?

And saying that it won't happen overnight...what will happen in the meantime? If those workers were essential during the pandemic, are they suddenly not essential anymore?

Doesn't the government need a plan?

@MultiBird if they could afford to work where they are living that would be great, but not all or even most can.
House prices around most hospitals tend to be high because demand drives it up because often staff want to live near work. This means the lower paid staff, carers, nurses, porters are the ones who don't have the option to live nearby.
Junior doctors can be sent anywhere in their deanery for training which involves long commutes.
And what if partners find they have to work a fair distance apart because of their specialisms and where the jobs are?
Our society is set up based on a commuter system, whether we like it or not, and there are no plans in place to mitigate for that.

Yes, I said that. A major societal change would be needed to achieve it and that would be very painful indeed. A bit like the industrial revolution maybe? These things have happened.

I was classed as a key worker during covid, worked in a school but not a teacher or ta I was employed by another company and just worked at the location.

When petrol started to increase I asked to move locations to a closer school to save money as I was spending £200 a month on fuel to get to work.

I loved my job and I was good at it, had undergone training for it which the company must have spent out on to gain qualifications they wanted.

They wouldn't move me so I left last month and now I have changed careers. I have gone from a professional to a shop worker, I am in a much better financial situation due to this saving fuel, time and my hours still fit around my kids.

Many others are going to be doing the same and leaving their jobs to find something more flexible, or closer to home.

In my experience I have found employers inflexible and unwilling to change.

Doesn't the government need a plan?

Quite!

They’ll have to, or jobs will go not being done.

As above, though, why are you conflating key workers with state employees? They are not the same thing.

why are you conflating key workers with state employees

I'm not, but your first post on this thread blithely said that employers would have to pay more.

I'm a teacher, and that has already been ruled out by the government.

So what's your solution to that? Apparently it's 'jobs not being done'.

Is that acceptable to you?

My entire family work in the public sector. Front line key workers who had to still work throughout the pandemic. I was fortunate enough to be able to WFH. My DH was not. DSIS worked in a covid ward. We are all being rewarded and thanked for our work for the last two years with pay freezes. It is a slap in the face TBH.

WFH is going to get expensive in the winter when you need to have heating on.

I've been thinking about work and pay a lot recently as I was made redundant from my last job (the small company I worked for folded largely due to the current increase in costs and drop in custom). My training and qualifications are in mental health and it's absolutely shocking how low pay is in this sector - really tough jobs that require a lot of experience at £20-25k pa, working 40 hours a week, often outside of normal office hours too. I'm also a trained counsellor and considering setting up in private practice but would need to charge at least £60 per session to make ends meet (there's only so many clients you can see per week to work ethically) - fewer people are going to be afford that though going forward with cost of living going up so much that "spare" money is going on utilities, transport and food.

We give our carers a temperorary monthly payment to cover the extra petrol costs. When petrol prices drop back to pre-war prices, we'll stop paying that money (or incorporate it as a payrise). Our carers seem happy with that.

For some of us "closer to home" isn't an option.....no jobs locally so no choice but to travel.

But we can't just keep throwing public money at everything.

People will need to start taking responsibility for their own care needs.

We also need a change in the law so that people who don't want to go in to care homes have alternatives such as voluntary euthanasia.

I don't want to go in to a care home but at the moment I don't have any choice.

I also don't want to live when all I can do it wait for carers to come to my home to get me out of bed, wash me, dress me and sit me in front of the tv. That is not living.

No-one is addressing the elephant in the room. Everyone is just saying that the government needs to throw more money at the problem when the country already has trillions of pounds worth of debt.

Just the public sector pension liabilities are over £2 trillion.

www.pensions-expert.com/Law-Regulation/Public-sector-pension-liabilities-break-2tn-with-16-surge?ct=true

We can only hope that life expectancy will start falling soon and quickly. If it doesn't then we will be completely screwed.