Zero-hour contracts are sold as "flexibility for the student or parent," but in reality, it is just flexibility for the business to screw you over.
One week you have forty hours and the next you have four, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Is it even possible to have a decent standard of living in the UK service industry without a guaranteed 16-hour contract?

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Zero hour contracts can feel stable until they are not. That swing from full weeks to almost nothing makes planning impossible. Flexibility should go both ways, not just benefit the employer. Without some guaranteed hours it is hard to build any real financial security.

I don't get how they're legal it's such a horrible experience for most on them...

It’s hard to plan your life when your income changes every week. That kind of flexibility only works when it goes both ways, and most of the time it doesn’t. Without guaranteed hours, rent and bills don’t wait. It’s tough to build any real stability in that situation.

Absolutely how can people have lives and families if they can't even provide security?

You're not wrong, zero hour contracts are designed to screw us over. I try to avoid jobs that offer them, but in this market, that's not always possible.

0 hour contracts are garbage and I would not be mad if they became illegal, not that that will ever happen. No one should have to deal with that much instability when it comes to something as important as being able to pay your rent and buy groceries.

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