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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Discount for NHS workers...

54 replies

odour · 27/04/2020 13:22

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?

OP posts:

JADS · 27/04/2020 13:48

They clearly thought it would be good PR for the company. Plus they are appealing to people who still have money coming in to spend it. The prices have probably been jacked up anyway.

I work for the NHS and I'm not keen on this at all. It creates a them and us situation and you just know the gutter press are waiting to turn on the NHS the second this is all over.

Pinkblueberry · 27/04/2020 13:49

YANBU. But it all has nothing to do with whether or not NHS workers deserve discount or not - I’m sure plenty of companies started out doing this with good intentions, but it’s become a not so subtle ad campaign now. Everyone wants to be seen as worshipping the NHS in a bid to be praised for their gratitude and appeal to costumers. It’s a bit like when companies sponsor charities, but of course need everyone to know about it - otherwise what’s the point? They don’t do it just out the goodness of their hearts. But people are clicking on to this and it will most likely backfire massively on some companies.

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 27/04/2020 13:50

Its marketing to benefit their profits not to help support NHS workers. Yes we still have our jobs but can see redundancies coming in the next few years

And really the perks are few and far between I now get excited by 25% discount at Just Eat

I used to get free gym membership, a nice bonus (around 1/3 of my wage), numerous works entertainment events (free drinks and food), very good pension, free lunch

SpudsAreLife84 · 27/04/2020 14:03

A lot of housing developers do this for "blue light" services so not just NHS but also police, prison service, fire service and armed forces. Its nothing new.

TryingToBeBold · 27/04/2020 14:04

A newly qualified nurse or midwife (shall we say age 22) will earn more a year than what I'm earning at the age of 30 after 14 years in work.

I don't get many benefits. A pension? A little more flexibility over annual leave.

I do agree that it's good PR to a point. Makes the companies look good for looking after the NHS workers. Even though people would agree there are others more at risk.. (and less at risk too) than some working within the NHS.

bloodyhellsbellsx · 27/04/2020 14:07

Well either the company owner wants to show his gratitude to the NHS or it’s a carefully deployed plan to increase media coverage and therefore sales, you decide

Contrary to popular belief NHS staff don’t get many discounts, neither have we had an influx of freebies donated by businesses despite what you see in the media. I work frontline ED in a big city hospital and we haven’t had anything and the only discount that I’m aware of that’s worth using is the nandos one and that’s been around for years

Daffodil101 · 27/04/2020 14:07

Bet they’d do it for most blue light if asked.

Nurses do not make up the entirety of the NHS. They are not the only ones paying professional memberships. I’m an AHP and I pay both HCPC and my professional body. DH is a medic and pays £458 per month in the equivalent subscriptions.

I saw a fb post last week saying that locals should have a whip round to pay nurses NMC fees. I’d just walked past two carers going into a nursing home and I wondered who was considering them?

I’ve never really thought much about carers, I have no elderly relatives so it’s not on my radar. I think they’ve had a shocking time.

lyralalala · 27/04/2020 14:09

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?

The fact they are in a better financial situation is exactly why they've been targetted.

Less people are going to be moving house for a while because they've been furloughed or made redundant. Offering them 5% would be absolutely pointless.

PawPawNoodle · 27/04/2020 14:11

Some of the incentives for NHS workers are really odd to me and feel more of a PR stunt than anything else. Dell for example is offering discounts for NHS workers; while this is nice, I cant imagine many front line workers have a need for a desktop and WFH will have been given work laptops.

I'm in a weird position where I'm a key worker but also self employed, my role has changed significantly and I would benefit from a desktop now rather than the laptop I have, which I have to pay for myself. A discount would have really made me inclined to buy from them if it was available to all key workers and not just NHS.

SpudsAreLife84 · 27/04/2020 14:12

Again,, this is nothing new. Housing developers have offered discounts to blue light services for years.

Daffodil101 · 27/04/2020 14:13

The WFH laptops are truly awful!

greyspottedgoose · 27/04/2020 14:15

I agree NHS workers are doing a great job and deserve to be recognised for this but at the same time there are office based NHS workers, clerical staff ect who all come under the same NHS umbrella, how are they more at risk and so more deserving of queue jumping at shops, discounted takeaways, cheaper housing and so on than the supermarket workers who are at risk on the shop floor all day getting no perks

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 27/04/2020 14:16

I have found the nhs discounts from the websites for home/travel/car insurance haven’t worked out cheaper than I get on other websites

JacobReesMogadishu · 27/04/2020 14:19

Well it demonstrates they can afford to drop the prices by 5% and still make a profit. Which if I wasn’t nhs would put me off the house slightly. It would certainly make me compare prices very closely to what else is on the market. Bearing in mind the upcoming recession and likely fall in house prices I’d be trying to negotiate. Most new builds are over priced.

onceandneveragain · 27/04/2020 14:19

Also depends what you class as blue light scheme and how closely it is monitored. I have a friend who worked in admin in the nhs, left nearly a year ago but still uses her blue light card to get discounts in shops. Can't remember either if it doesn't have a date on it at all, or gets renewed every few years, so you can keep it for a while after leaving the nhs. Plus her role wasn't any worse paid or stressful than other friends working in admin in other sectors.

I think generally, outside of major pandemics, the police, army and fire service are at more risk than nhs staff, so not sure why we would single out service as more deserving service than the others. 5% could easily be a £20grand discount or more!

SpudsAreLife84 · 27/04/2020 14:23

I am prison service DH is military and we got a discount on the first home we bought together. It was a new build approx 8 years ago.

EmmaGrundyForPM · 27/04/2020 14:26

I am seconded into the NHS at the moment, into a management position. I consider myself to be well paid and I'm not frontline. I have an NHS. identity card but I've not used it to get any discounts or to go shopping at times reserved for NHS. staff as dont believe that they are designed for people like me.

WiddlinDiddlin · 27/04/2020 14:30

YANBU to be annoyed by this..

Because its got fuck all to do with who deserves what, and everything to do with companies trying to look kind and generous and thoughtful and thereby drag in more custom.

Effectively they are using this crisis and NHS workers as a lost leader to sell more houses.. which I think its pretty fucking disgusting!

CaryStoppins · 27/04/2020 14:43

It's just a marketing ploy.

Some companies offer student discounts - it's not because New Look feel poor students really deserve it, it's to increase profits.

Lots of companies eg Dominos, LoveHoney offered NHS discounts before this.

PlanBea · 27/04/2020 15:28

The builder of my new build home offered a 5% discount to NHS for at least the last 2 years. This is likely not to be anything new. In the small print though it was selected plots only, so any plots they felt they couldn't sell easily were eligible basically, but no further incentives were allowed to be stacked.

MrsJoshNavidi · 27/04/2020 19:52

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?

Is being exposed daily on a ward any more risky than being exposed daily behind the counter of a bank branch? Or than collecting our rubbish? Or than looking after other people's children? Or than working as a cleaner in a care home? Or.....

CaryStoppins · 27/04/2020 20:00

Yes, working on a ward or as a carer in a care home with covid infections is much, much more risky than working in a bank, or school, or collecting rubbish

fedupwiththisshitnow · 27/04/2020 20:02

Of course it is! Have you never heard of viral load?

EricaNernie · 27/04/2020 20:02

Plenty of places give discounts, as said already, but they arent all they are cracked up to be.
key workers also benefit from certain schemes with housing.
it is not new

Thingsdogetbetter · 27/04/2020 20:07

This discount for key workers isn't new. It was designed to attract nurses, doctors, teachers etc to areas that lack them. Bit shity if it's being used as purely a marketing ploy.

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