‘Office for National Statistics estimate 1,766,000 jobs done by adults in the UK that paid less than £118 a week.
About 70% of these jobs are done by women’.
So if you have to self isolate because you display symptoms of Coronavirus and think it sensible to stay off work, perhaps because you work with disease-vulnerable people etc, and you earn less than £118 week, you will be off work unpaid for the duration.
Stat sick pay is also only available if you’ve been in the job for 12 months at least.
That’s all zero hours contract workers, retail workers (like me) many of us on minimum hours contracts (generally 6, 8 or 12 hour weekly contracts), etc.
How exactly does the rent get paid without wages coming in and you’re not eligible for housing benefit? If you’re off work for 2 weeks maybe the rent just has to be late, if you’re off for 2 months, what landlord is going to allow that sort of financial delay?
We only have around £50 a month in tax credits due to an overpayment debt with them-that’s our only other income source. At present we bring in less than £1500 month I estimate for a family of 4. Our rent and bills alone are £2000. Credit card debt has stacked up phenomenally recently.
My employer is horrendous at the best of times. Many of our staff are young and constantly pulling fake sickies, every week someone is off at least 1-2 shifts a week, and there’s only 8 staff in total.
Our town now has confirmed coronavirus cases in schools.
With Easter school holidays just 2 weeks away at least I’d be guaranteed holiday pay when I’m off with my kids then (well, a whole 12 hours of pay for two weeks, whoopee).