Every morning, Ian wakes up at 6am and does online market research surveys until his children wake up. He logs on again during his two 45-minute breaks at the supermarket where he works full time, and at night, he’ll do two more hours. He earns £5 a day from the survey rewards, but he considers it worth sacrificing his free time to maintain his family’s standard of living amid rapidly soaring costs.
Ian is one of thousands of workers who have turned to the gig economy after discovering that their full-time wages will no longer make ends meet as the cost-of-living crisis bites. Some are scouring the web to find surveys and trials offering rewards, while others are signing up to become Deliveroo or Uber drivers in their evenings and weekends.
