Johnny Timpson: Why the 'gig' workforce needs a financial safety net

The protection gig

clock • 4 min read

Self-employment and self-reliance go hand in hand, writes Johnny Timpson, which makes it essential the UK's growing number of 'gig workers' and their advisers review their financial resilience and protection needs

The ‘gig economy' may well be a buzz term these days but there is a reason why. Used to describe the rapidly increasing prevalence of short-term contract or freelance work in the UK employment market, there are now (according to the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) around 1.1m gig workers in Britain - nearly as many as in the NHS. This trend is set to continue, but what does it mean for advisers? The gig economy is diverse and so, while widely perceived as being mainly Uber drivers or parcel couriers, a significant proportion of this sector has been...

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