UK Poverty Post

NeedNOTGreed

Oxfam are proud members of the NeedNOTGreed coalition, which is working hard to raise awareness of the range of issues that force people to work in the informal economy. These issues are many, varied and complex, and there’s no silver bullet that will solve them on its own.

But General Election time is rapidly approaching – and the changes we can realistically hope for between now and then aren’t necessarily the big, systemic ones we’d like to see. With this in mind, the NeedNOTGreed coalition are today launching a tightly focused campaign for one of those little changes that can make a big difference. As things stand, someone on unemployment benefits can earn only £5 a week (£10 for a couple, £20 for a single parent) without it affecting their benefit. That’s around 52 minutes’ work at the minimum wage.

In other words, it’s useless. This ‘earnings disregard’ has been frozen since 1988, and it essentially means that doing a few hours’ work a week is in no-one’s financial interests.

Why does this matter? Well, there are two main reasons. The first is that benefit levels are pitifully low – and worth half of what they were relative to wages thirty years ago. Jobseeker’s Allowance is worth £50.95 to under 25s, and £64.30 to those 25 and over. That’s barely enough in a good week, and when unexpected but normal costs arise – something as mundane as a broken boiler, say – people’s livelihoods can be thrown out of kilter. And so if people can find even only a few hours’ work, it can be the difference between catastrophe and just about getting by – especially when the alternative is taking out loans at the rate at which they’re offered to poor people. And people can’t always work a full-time, or even a regular part-time week – due to caring responsibilities or health problems, for example. Yet the draconian rules around benefits mean people can’t officially get those few hours here or there to tide them over, and so they’re forced to choose between the informal economy and destitution.

Secondly, the only jobs that are actually available are often short-term, part-time, seasonal or insecure. This is especially true in areas with high levels of poverty, and for people who have been out of work for some time. These, though, could be the first step in the often long and fraught journey from benefits to full-time, sustainable employment. Yet the welfare system not only tries to cajole and bully people into work that isn’t there, it also makes it financially impossible to take the jobs that actually are.

And what these both have in common is that they not only stop people getting by – they also stop them getting on. By forcing people who can only work a few hours a week into the informal economy, the benefit system renders the skills and experience they gain unusable in applying for jobs in the formal economy – and so leaves people stuck on benefits for longer. Similarly, by locking people out of often the only jobs available to them, the system is guilty of tripping them at the first hurdle.

The NeedNOTGreed campaign’s proposals today are modest. Raising the earnings disregard to £50 per week only equates to about 8.5 hours’ work at the minimum wage. It won’t change the world, and it will leave plenty left to be done. But as a means of helping people earn a little money to keep their heads above water, or of helping them to take some first, tentative steps into work, it could be invaluable. And perhaps just as importantly, it will demonstrate the drive, determination and ingenuity that exist within communities that are so often written off.

The BBC and the Guardian have covered the NeedNOTGreed coalition’s new campaign this morning.