Over a million workers 'trapped in poverty' as they lose nearly £500 a month in cancelled shifts

Over a million workers face an ‘insecurity premium’ of nearly £500 a month due to cancelled shifts, new analysis has revealed.

The government passed the Employment Rights Act last year, introducing new rights related to job security, shift notice and minimum guaranteed working hours.

But many of these changes have not been rolled out yet – and some 6.3 million UK workers still work variable hours, with no guarantees of when they will work or how much they will earn.

According to new research from the Living Wage Foundation, it’s leaving millions trapped in poverty.

The charity surveyed 2,000 insecure workers, and found that more than half had lost money through short-notice shifts, cancelled shifts or wasted costs on things like transport and childcare. In total, 19% lost money in all three ways.

Affected workers lost around £230 a month on average – but for the one-in-five insecure workers who lost out in all three ways, this surged to an average of £470. That’s around 1.1 million people losing almost £500 monthly.

Such rampant insecurity makes it “impossible” to plan a life, said Graham Griffiths, director of Living Wage Foundation.

“Millions of workers are stuck in jobs where they don’t know when they’ll be working or if they’ll get the hours and pay they need, trapping them in poverty and making it impossible to plan a life,” he said. “Many are now struggling to put food on the table and keep up with bills.”

The Employment Rights Act is a “step in the right direction,” Griffiths added – but there remains “uncertainty around how strong the act’s provisions will be.”

The act received royal assent last year, but is being rolled out in stages. In February, anti-trade union laws were revoked. In April, a major wave introduced day-one statutory sick pay and family leave rights, alongside the creation of the Fair Work Agency. And in August, new rules allowing electronic trade union balloting came into force; previously, this could only be done by post.

In 2027, workers will get the right to guaranteed working hours, if they want them. They will also get compensation if a shift is cancelled, shortened or moved to another time, and reasonable notice of shifts and changes to shifts.

“It’s not right that people can work regular hours but still have no certainty about their pay from week to week,” then-business secretary Peter Kyle said in June 2026. “These vital changes will mean more certainty for millions of people and will save the lowest paid workers hundreds of pounds.”

But the detail of these key provisions is still unclear. The government initially promised to ban zero-hours contracts, but later diluted the proposals slightly to include only ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts. Consultation on how this ban should work closed last week.

Meanwhile, workers on variable hours continue to suffer. According to the polling released by the Living Foundation, nearly three in four (73%) had to make sacrifices like skipping meals, falling behind on bills and credit payments, or dipping into personal savings.

To make matters worse, many people working variable hours have little to no savings to fall back on as the cost of living continues to leave people struggling with unmanageable debt.

Over a third (34%) have less than a month’s outgoings saved, which includes over a fifth (22%) with no savings at all. More than one in four (26%) have debt that is challenging to manage.

Griffiths encouraged employers to sign up to the Living Wage Foundation’s Living Hours accreditation. Some 300 businesses have done so, committing at least 16 hours of work a week for those who want it, and at least four weeks’ notice of shifts. This builds on the foundation’s better known pledge: the Real Living Wage. This is a voluntary pay standard, independently set at a higher rate than the statutory minimum wage.

Employers who sign up are “choosing to transform millions of people’s lives right now whilst raising the bar for what decent work looks like in the UK,” Griffiths said.

Sam, who works for Living Wage employer Thomas Kneale, said that working on a zero-hours contract in previous employment “really took its toll.”

“I never got enough hours to make ends meet and not knowing how much work I was going to get meant I couldn’t even predict how much I would be short each month,” she added.

“It was a constant struggle. I could only afford to rent miserable places and I was always falling behind on bills.”

Having a guaranteed hours contract has changed everything, she said: “I live life on my own terms.”

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