Discount for NHS workers...

[odour]

Ok ok,
I'm prepared to be told I am being unreasonable and flamed for this.

Today on Facebook I saw a new build housing company are offering 5% discounts on their new builds if you are an NHS worker. This is a long term plan so not just for the duration we are under this crisis.

Now as much as I think it's a nice idea,
And I wholeheartedly have the upmost respect for NHS worker at the moment, Would I be unreasonable to think if you work in the NHS you will still be receiving your full wage so would be in a better financial situation to buy a home anyway as apposed to someone who has had to pause their savings for a deposit due to furlough?

Are NHS workers far more important than every other frontline worker? Yes I know they are saving lives, but supermarket workers are helping us kept fed, care home staff are also on the frontline but no discount for them!

Thoughts please?

I completely agree. Covid or not Covid, there are plenty of low paid key workers who can't afford to buy their own house.

No I don’t think they are more important than any other key worker and I say that as a NHS worker.
That’s a very generous discount.

Wouldn’t you say nhs workers are the most at risk? Particularly those who are exposed to the virus every day on the covid wards?

We are both NHS and I agree. We have had 50% discount in a local take away too.

But I also wonder if it’s a clever way of hooking those people in who haven’t been so badly affected financially. In which case they could open the offer to ‘key workers’ couldn’t they?

But then they’d be swamped, potentially?

I think offering to the NHS is partly good PR

Care workers have been disproportionately affected, Buzz.

Yes I agree they’re also very at risk due to the Coronavirus but the OP’s post said this isn’t a short term thing and isn’t just during the current pandemic.

I think it’s because we have so many staff shortages in this country. That’s why people can’t get a GP apt etc because there aren’t enough!

I don’t agree with it though, just thinking about a potential reason.

But you are arguing about nhs workers being at most risk. Not sure I agree with you.

I know plenty of nhs workers who haven’t been near Covid. You’d have to start singling out the particularly deserving

I mean on a good day a nurse is responsible for the lives of 1-20 patients depending on where they work.. they pay for NMC registration, parking at work, union cover.. a teachers salary is far better than a nurses! Nhs workers are bashed enough. Why does it matter if they are offered 5% off a new home scheme? The nmc costs £100 a year - look at it as a way of covering their nmc registration!

@buzz

Of course NHS workers working in the COVID-19 ward are very much high risk, however supermarket staff are scanning item after item after it has been touched multiple times and those screens in front of the till aren't exactly the highest tech PPE are they?

My point is we are all at risk, but there are a multitude of care workers at the forefront too who are on terrible wages for the risk they are in, looking after the elderly who have been discharged back into care homes to free beds up when they have not been tested and are bringing in the virus. A huge amount of care workers also work 12 hours shifts at the front.

I just think this is shameless virtue signalling on behalf of this company.

Yes probably, but the nhs isn’t known for offering many job perks, why shouldn’t a help to buy scheme be offered? Does it matter, really? We’re in the middle of a pandemic. I can’t get het up about this.

YANBU.

As NHS workers will have spending power overall as it is one of the businesses that has not been told to close, it makes sense that they would be the target audience to oil the wheels of the economy.

Whether it is fair or not, is a different discussion.

@buzz I am NOT bashing NHS workers and no one else in THIS thread are we are all having a sensible discussion.

Teachers, like nurses start on the lowest band for salary and work there way up, they also have to pay union fees and registration fees.

It's just a marketing gimmick of the housing company to sell houses. They won't be casting any worthiness judgements or caring about who is still receiving a full wage.
It's popular to give discounts to nhs staff just now, it makes them look good, there are lots of nhs staff and their families so it covers a wide audience that's all.
Pure marketing.

I haven’t said you were bashing nhs workers have I?

The government has been systematically screwing over NHS workers. They’re woefully underpaid. I can’t get worked up about this. They really should be doing it for teachers as well though.

I think a lot of these discounts are available anyway. E.g. if the developer is offering 5% to NHS staff, they have that to work with in their margin, so it will be available to anyone who negotiates it. It's a marketing ploy more than it's a generous gesture.

It’s probably just for PR. Housing developers don’t operate out of the kindness of their hearts.

My mum was an NHS worker but worked in change management, on a good wage, in an office or from home. Not all are high risk.

And as previous poster said the company can guarantee nhs workers still have their income. Why would they market to people with a lack of income? As harsh at this sounds - they're not a charity.

Seems a bit pointless really lots of non clinical NHS staff with zero patient contact will have no more chance of contracting COVD than anybody who is still.going to work ,how do they distinguish who deserves the discount more?

I think offering to the NHS is partly good PR

I agree with you and think this could lead to an unpleasant backlash if it continues. There will always be people feeling left out or left behind, some who have lost their jobs and well aware of the job security that others have retained, or struggling to access healthcare but then being made to feel continually grateful (not by individuals per se but by the current cult that has developed) Whether this is right and wrong, it is simple human behaviour. I think this is inadvertently creating more division; a sense of some people having more worth and others less and needs to be given careful thought. There are many thousands of people out there who are not NHS, frontline etc but going the extra mile to help others and provide support in less obvious ways; let's not forget them. I'm sure quite a few NHS workers are quite uncomfortable about this.

Some NHS workers do earn lots of money, not all, but will the local Trust director also qualify, for example?

Surely not everyone who works for the NHS is 'frontline' either? Or badly paid?