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Curtis said the group they identified, known legally as Limb (b) workers, need to be tracked through ONS figures while the group needs expanded employment rights.<\/p>\n
Analysis of the online forum posts showed the personal impact of insecure work, telling stories of deteriorating mental health, financial stability and physical health from the from long hours and instability from certain gig economy roles.<\/p>\n
Aleks Collingwood, partnership insight manager at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation<\/a>, said: \u201cThis research places a spotlight on people in insecure roles who deliver vital services \u2013 from food deliveries to care \u2013 yet who lack the same protections as other employees. As the market for insecure work grows and more people depend on it to stay afloat, it is critical that their voices are heard in policymaking.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government has stated that it aims to improve employment protections and get more people into work. Political will is essential: there needs to be a genuine desire to end poverty<\/a>, restore the social safety net, and support people living in financial hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Labour\u2019s Employment Rights Bill<\/a>, offering more security for zero-hours workers, is due to get royal assent before Christmas.<\/p>\n The government is also expected to launch a consultation on employment status in 2026.<\/p>\n Curtis said that the legislation is a \u201cwin for restoring trust in the state\u201d but said more needs to be done.<\/p>\n An ONS spokesperson told Big Issue that there is no agreed definition of a gig economy worker. That makes it difficult to measure and can lead to varying estimates.<\/p>\n \u201cWe collect a very wide range of information<\/a> on jobs and employment, not just through surveys but also data from employer payrolls, the benefits system and from online job ads,\u201d the ONS spokesperson said. <\/p>\n \u201cTogether this reflects many different facets of the labour market. This includes, among many other things, information on zero-hours contracts; the number of hours people work; their wages; and the quality of certain jobs.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Change a vendor\u2019s life this Christmas.<\/strong><\/p>\n Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 or support online with a\u00a0vendor support kit<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0subscription<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and help people work their way out of poverty with dignity.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe latest employment figures tell a grave enough story, but we would urge policy-makers to give more consideration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,16811,4884,897,190771,11525,1144,712,16,15,1764,596,11851],"class_list":["post-647640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-gig-economy","tag-great-britain","tag-jobs","tag-joseph-rowntree-foundation","tag-learning-and-employment","tag-northern-ireland","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales","tag-work","tag-workers-rights"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115761442768530085","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}