Britain | Unusual employment

Why poor Britons in prosperous places are suffering

Wealthy commuters are fine. Their neighbours are not

|STEVENAGE

MARIA MOVED to Britain from Poland a decade ago. She spent the first four years living in London before cheaper housing drew her to Stevenage, a drab but prosperous commuter town 30 miles north of the capital. Until March this year, she worked in a London sandwich shop, even though the train season-ticket swallowed around a third of her income. She was furloughed in April and recently found out her job would not be coming back. “I’m still getting paid until the end of September,” she says, “but who knows after that? I’ve applied for about 40 jobs so far.”

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Pain in unexpected places”

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