This report by the News Economic Foundation has shed light on how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted and led to hardships faced by the self-employed workforce.
Self-employment has risen significantly over the past two decades. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the fragile nature of work for many people in the UK – and the self-employed workforce is no exception. In this report, we bring to the fore some of the shared challenges faced by self-employed people, especially women, in the pursuit of improved working lives that are more autonomous and accommodating. Policy interventions aimed at improving the conditions of self-employed work tend to be reductive and fail to address wider social factors which impact on self-employed workers. For example, the narrative around stamping out bogus forms of self-employment often fails to recognise the power structures within working life, or the wider social and economic factors which contribute to exploitative work practices, . We explore the experience of working life in a more expansive way, drawing upon social and cultural experiences as well as material factors.