Hard Work: Life in Low-pay Britain [Paperback]

 

 

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The author was asked to live in poverty for the period of Lent. I agree the situation was artificial and in some ways she probably made it harder for herself by starting off the experiment with less than the majority of people would start off with. She of course could not claim Job Seekers' Allowance because she was not unemployed but she did make an effort to find out what she would have been entitled to if she really had nowhere to live and no furniture. She established what she would have to do to get a loan from the Social Fund in an interesting interview with a member of staff from the Department for Work and Pensions which showed how you really have to know the rules in order to get what you're entitled to.

She then approached a charity which provided furniture at rock bottom prices. I thought her visit to the charity was interesting as it showed the difference between what she considered essential and the items which are actually essential. I patted myself on the back that I would have had more money left over from the loan she had theoretically received. The author having furnished her flat then had to find herself a job as soon as possible knowing she had little money in reserve and would have to give up receiving benefit long before she was paid for her first week's work. This to me highlighted a major problem with the low paid - that gap between stopping benefit and being paid for your work. People doing the jobs at the bottom of the scale will usually not have savings to tide them over such a gap and bills have to be paid.

I felt her comments about spending more than she would earn for a week at the hairdressers or on a meal out served to point up the difference between the middle class and the poor rather than being patronising. The rest of the book contains descriptions of her various low paid jobs - packing cakes, working in a school kitchen, working as a hospital porter, cleaning, care assistant, nursery worker and cold calling by phone. She doesn't grumble about the jobs just points out how physically hard many of them are. She highlights many issues which seriously need addressing. Things like having to go and collect application forms rather than receiving them through the post, not being able to take contracts - or even copies of contracts - away with her, having to be at a job 15 minutes before the official start, having to go and sit and wait to see if there are any vacancies. Many of the jobs were through an agency which means an employee's rights are few and their job security non-existent.

The people she met were interesting and she really got over to me the commitment people showed to these low paid jobs. Many took a pride in their work and went the extra mile - often unpaid - to do the best they could. Many were working below their capabilities because it was nearly impossible for them to take the time out to search for another job. The majority of the people she met were women working for low wages - often below the then minimum wage - because the job fitted in with the care of their children and they didn't dare complain about pay and conditions. Employers consistently undervalue these people and do not reward them as they deserve to be rewarded.

The author highlights the stupidity of contracting out public services because you end up with workers doing the same job working side by side for different money and for different employers with different job descriptions so it is almost impossible for them to co-operate to get the job done in the best possible way. I thought the chapter about working in a care home was the most emotional and the author showed how people try and do the best for the inmates even though there are nowhere enough staff to do the job how it should be done. Was it really a good idea to hand this work over to the private sector where the main motive for the business is profit rather than service? Her interview with `Mr Jones' highlights the major problems. Profits are being made on the backs of low paid overworked staff.

Low paid jobs - in spite of the Minimum Wage - are even lower paid than they were in the 1970s relatively speaking. The Tax Credits system, while it may have boosted the income of some families - though not single people - has merely made it possible for employers to get away with paying lower wages knowing the taxpayer will make up the difference. Can this be right? Do we need to tackle this problem of low pay for essential work? Everyone would notice if all the care workers, laundry staff, cleaners, school dinner ladies went on strike but they are not unionised so this is unlikely. Employers regard staff as expendable and turnover is high. Yet if they paid more and took the time to train staff they might actually get a better job done at lower cost.

I thought this book was a real eye opener and it showed that these low paid essential jobs need to be looked at differently and the wages need to be increased even if it does mean higher prices for the rest of us. It's really a choice between higher taxes to boost the income of the lower paid or higher prices because the people doing these essential jobs are paid a proper rate for the job. Which do we want?

In 'Hard Work', Polly Toynbee a middle-class Guardian journalist takes up the challenge thrown to her to live life as one of the many 'working poor'. She adopts the lifestyle of an ordinary, middle-aged woman from a run-down council estate in East London.

Polly doesnt find it difficult to get employment, but the jobs are thankless, jobs that few people will lower themselves to do and the wages are so low that she is in debt from day one. Even getting to interviews, getting to work, supplying herself with a decent pair of work shoes puts into debt. Many jobs pay less than the minimum wage, and of course the banks wont touch her - but the many loan sharks operating on the estate are glad to loan her money - at hugely inflated interest rates. All of the jobs, without fail are hard work, dirty, boring and often dangerous. Polly is offered no training, no benefits, no job security.

This book highlights many many problems with today's society - although written in 2002, I am sure that most of these problems still exist - if not more. Our Government seem obsessed with getting people into work and training, yet the Government has contracted out most of it's public services, for example, hospital portering, public sector cleaners and care givers. By outsourcing this work they have given over this very important work to mainly uncaring employers who are only interested in making as much money as possible and not interested in the people that carry out the work for them - these workers that are being exploited day after day are mainly women, and mainly mothers.

Politicians have no idea of what is happening in low-paid Britain - this book highlights the disgusting state of the 'working poor' - people who work far and above the recommended working hours every week for so little pay and in terrible conditions. These are not people who are living off the state or scroungers - these are people who want to work and who want to provide for their families.

On the cover of this book, Will Hutton writes: 'Every member of the Cabinet should be required to read it, apologise and then act.' How I'd like to imagine that this has or will happen - sadly I doubt it, and this country will continue to exploit it's people - whilst speaking out about other country's human-rights issues.

This is a hard-hitting book that makes the reader realise that oh so many things are hidden from view - it's time that those in power took stock of the state of their own country before spending millions on invading other nations.

Polly Toynbee is a journalist who decided to take a year long sabbatical from her job and see if it was possible to live on the minimum wage.
She decided to move out of her middle class home, live in a council estate flat and try to survive on very little.
Polly had already done this once before back in 1970 and wanted to try it again to see how much life in low pay Britain had changed.
This book documents her experience.
Polly worked as a hospital porter, a school cook, a nursery nurse, in a cake factory and at a residential home.
Each job paid less that £200 per week and some jobs paid less than the minimum wage per hour.
Polly meet a variety of low paid workers in every job and found out how hard they find it to survive and discovers some of them are working 2 and 3 jobs just to get by.
Polly's time in the residential home is a hard breaking one and very disturbing to read about.
I think personally Polly spend to much time working and writing about the NHS and the civil service.
At times in the book I felt she was on a one women mission to try and expose the NHS.
In my opinion she just didn't do enough different jobs and didn't make the experience as interesting as it should have been.
In saying that this book is still a interesting read and one that should be read if you want to discover how hard life can be on minimum wage working in Britain.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A sincere likeable author - albeit somewhat naive
Polly Toynbee is self confesedly an affluent, middle class "liberal"; normally speaking, I wouldn't touch a book by such a person, since in my view, the so called liberal left... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Roger an old romantic

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard Work: by Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee works in a variety of low-paid jobs and lives in a substandard council flat, in order to experience at first-hand the realities of the sort of life that so many... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Dulcie

5.0 out of 5 stars Politics apart, focus on message

Exactly. I'm not into any political debate, I don't follow their issues. I'm barely an observer. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Mr. J. M. Zielinski

5.0 out of 5 stars Unputdownable
A great story and essential read for anyone making strategic or employment decisions in the public or private sector. Read more

Published 22 months ago by V. Morgan

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book to have written with an important message
I have just finished reading this book and came on here to read what others thought of the book. I must say I am surprised by the negative reviews... Read more

Published on 26 Dec 2009 by Ms. Sl Moran

2.0 out of 5 stars Poverty can't be simulated
Being unemployed, I read this book hoping that Polly focused primarily on her observations without too much analysis of causes and solutions. Read more

Published on 12 Jun 2009 by Peter Durward Harris

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading - but she ruined it by cheating!
A passionately expressed and extensively researched study by journalist Polly Toynbee, into the lives of the poor end of society that everyone else, on the whole, would rather not... Read more

Published on 17 Jan 2009 by Miss E. M. Potten

5.0 out of 5 stars A woman with a mission
For anybody who thinks that poverty is only relative and the true hardship of poverty only lives in the past or anyone who thinks that Britain is heading steadily in the direction... Read more

Published on 19 Sep 2008 by Mr. R. J. HESKETH

1.0 out of 5 stars An opportunity wasted
The book begins promisingly enough, with the author learning how to "work the system" to obtain grants and loans for furniture and basic necessities to get started... Read more

Published on 15 May 2008 by Paul Davies

1.0 out of 5 stars New Labour at its best
This book is odd. It mocks the Church of England for being the Conservative party at prayer, but then defends it for the good work it does in the community. Read more

Published on 2 Jun 2005 by A. P. Story

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