Terry Russ just wants to get back to work. But like millions of low-paid British workers, his family faces a precarious future as the pandemic turns into an economic crisis.
that the three-month scheme would mean furloughed workers like Terry would, on average, lose 13% of their incomes if they lost their jobs because of the virus rather than 53% if the government had done nothing.“Are you absolutely sure you understand everything in that letter before you send it back and say you’re happy?” Ali said.
Last April, they were unfairly docked £1,300 because of an administrative mistake. Terry’s monthly salary had been paid earlier than normal because of the Easter holidays and because he received two pay packets in a single universal credit assessment period, the system automatically reduced their payment the next month. The Russes had to borrow money from Ali’s father to cover their expenses for the month.
“I can phone ‘em and speak to them,” Terry said, although he doubted he’d be able to get through to anyone.Terry, Ali and their three children, aged 6, 4, and 3, in 2017.Already he had done most of the odd jobs that he’d promised Ali he would do around the house: fixing the TV to the living room wall, putting up a shelf in their bedroom.
But their unnerving new reality was never far from their minds, and so now Ali and Terry were sitting in their kitchen, going over their finances again. The car was costing around £340 a month in diesel, insurance and taxes, but they’d have to keep paying that as long as they still had to drive the kids to and from school every day. Likewise, Terry saw no savings to be squeezed out of their internet service, which they need to manage their universal credit account, or the four mobile phone contracts for which they paid £63.88 a month for them and their parents.
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