...The report uses tax and benefit modelling to show the impact of the growth in insecure work since 2006. It shows how the growth of low-paid self-employment and zero-hours contracts has led to a fall in government revenues because: Low-paid self-employed workers and those on zero-hours contracts earn significantly less than regular employees and therefore pay less tax and national insurance; this also makes them more likely to need to rely on in-work benefits such as tax credits and housing benefit; even when the self-employed do earn as much as regular employees, the tax is structured so that they pay less. This has led to a lower tax take and higher spending on in-work benefits. The report says that the total being lost to the Treasury from the rise in precarious working is more than £75m a week. This is the equivalent of more than a quarter of England’s social care budget...TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The huge rise in insecure work isn’t just bad for workers. It’s punching a massive hole in the public finances too...Bosses who employ staff on shady contracts are cheating all of us. That’s why we desperately need more decent jobs that pay a fair wage. Getting more people into unions is key. Workers in unionised workplaces are twice as likely to be on better-paid secure contracts.”