Jane Embury, from Devizes, Wiltshire, lost her job and her home during the pandemic. Her and her husband’s manufacturing business, producing architectural steel for commercial glazing, suffered from import hurdles after Brexit. Then Covid hit and construction sites closed. Embury, who had been living alone but continued to work with her husband after they split up years ago, took out a £250,000 loan against her home, on which she had already paid off a mortgage, in the hope of saving the family business, but in vain. “We went into administration in 2022,” she said. “I was looking for part-time work...