27 Apr The most economically affected people by Covid-19
The Coronavirus is set to economically affect a wave of people since strict restrictions are put in place.
UK government has put restrictions in place as of March 23rd 2020, Boris Johnson said “…travelling to and from work, but only where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home.”
This has caused people to lose out on earnings as they are being forced to stay at home due to the outbreak. Leading to more and more people applying for financial aid including furloughs, universal credits and other forms of support from the government since they are unable to work. However, these support procedures put in place can also cause issues and mistakes being made to people’s pay.
“..at the end of the day receiving 80% of your contracted hours isn’t enough to live on especially for those who have such short contracts.” James, 19 who is receiving furlough from his work said, his payments have been considerably less than what they usually are “The whole pay system helps me cause it pays so much towards my bills. But the whole down side to it all is I still can’t get any help from the government as I’m still in full time education..”
Even with the financial aid being offered to people, there is an overwhelming sense that these measures are still not helping people. Not helping them be able to provide themselves with enough groceries to survive the lockdown that has been put into place.
There are also requirements that people have to meet in order to receive these support payments however, many of these are considered obstacles for the people that need them the most at this time. Obstacles that they need to jump over in order to benefit financially.
Sharon, a contracted cleaner was told by her employer who did try to apply on her behalf found that she was not eligible for furlough since she did not do ‘enough hours.’
The majority of businesses being shut down are stores that sell non essentials such as clothes, electronics and various other items. This is to try to reduce the amount of people going out which could cause the virus to spread further than it has already.
Where there has been a loss of shops on the high street, a blog called The Economic Impact of Covid-19 in Low and Middle-Income Countries says that “Business closures—whether through government bans or business decisions—result in lost wages for workers in many cases, especially in the informal economy where there is no paid leave.”
A business owner of a hairdressers, who had to close due to the lockdown said “I had to close my shop and it has affected my income drastically. It has also affected the staff members that work there as it is their main source of income”
A survey on Business Impact of Coronavirus conducted by BICS showed that “Over a quarter (27%) of responding businesses said they were reducing staff levels in the short term, while 5% reported recruiting staff in the short term.”
Major stores and grocery stores are still open as the pandemic in order to provide the necessities, a small grocery store owner said “We have a lot more people coming into the shop on a daily basis. For groceries and other necessities.”
They also said that “We have had to put up further measures such as markings on the floor to show where people should stand 2 meters apart and a glass divider over the counter.”
While there are stores like pharmacies hiring in order to keep up with the demand of medical supplies and face masks. They are also asking for people that have retired from the medical sector to come out of retirement to help NHS staff to treat patients. There has also been a major loss of jobs in other sectors that have been hit by the pandemic.
Institute for Fiscal Studies found that the majority of the staff in businesses that have been forced to temporarily shut down “Employees aged under 25 were about two and a half times as likely to work in a sector that is now shut down as other employees.”
The main ones affected by this would be people that earn lower incomes such as manual laborers. This is shown by the data found by Institute for Fiscal Studies as “Low earners are seven times as likely as high earners to have worked in a sector that is now shut down.”
“This has caused me a major loss in income which goes towards me being able to pay my rent each month.” Said Sharon, this is what many people face due to the restrictions on going out and the shut down of businesses.
This will not affect the most financially stable in our society as much as those of a lower income. Christian Fuchs says in his report on Everyday Life and Everyday Communication in Coronavirus Capitalism that “Just like the Thatcherism that the Tories have advanced preaches and practices survival of the fittest companies in the capitalist economy…”
Even though moving businesses online have increased greatly in recent years. Due to covid-19 larger companies are said to face a loss due to the Coronavirus lockdown, many of the wealthier businesses being able to transfer work onto online platforms in order to successfully complete them from home. There are still smaller business owners that are unable to do this either due to not having the technology or it is unable to transfer it onto online.
Shops selling essential items including groceries found that more people were using their online stores to order deliveries to avoid going out during the lockdown. Anne who is an elderly lady said that “I recently got my daughter to do an online shop for me to avoid me, myself having to make the journey to the shops for what I need.”
Cliff Young, president of Ipsos U.S. Public Affairs. “The rich and affluent have gone virtual. They’ve maintained their jobs through the virtual world,” he said. “The working and the poor are more exposed.”
People of the working social class are more affected by this sudden closure of shops and places of work as it means that they have to manage the pay they do get in order to be able to buy essentials like food or health products. It will also majorly affect the homeless population which has been on an increase in recent years. As these people do not have a place to go to and if they do go to a homeless shelter it could lead to overcrowding where the virus can be able to spread quicker and cause harm to a larger group of people.
