Future of benefits
Very few people are so unable, or unwilling, to work that they have absolutely no hours they could ever sell. In an extreme case, they may only be able to manage two hours work a week, as long as it requires no physical exertion, is within 0.25m of home and deciding this morning if they can work this afternoon. But there could be an employer willing to buy that time, boosting the person's self esteem and prospects. As Slivers-of-Time Working matures, the benefits system may need to recognise this capability.
The current benefits system does not envisage millions of computerised bookings for very small periods of time. See Can I sell Slivers-of-Time Working on benefits? But, assume this way of working becomes the norm for thousands, as forecast by government research.
Signing-on in 2015
Now imagine a scenario a few years from now. A new client arrives at a Jobcentre to sign on for the first time. They are offered two scenarios:
- Commit to conventional job-hunting while coming in every two weeks to sign a piece of paper attesting to their continuing efforts. There will be assessments every few months with coercion applied if progress is not being made.
- Choose to enter a Slivers-of-Time market and list hours of availability each week. Within this time they can be automatically diarised for interviews or induction periods by JCP authorised employers. Meanwhile, their time is for sale within their personal criteria.
In order to receive benefits each week the person choosing option 2 may have to agree to:
List a minimum number of hours availability, this could be 25 hours a week to ensure reserved time for traditional job search- Allow the system to check they are not using the ability to set their parameters to unjustifiably exclude periods of work
- Get timesheets signed for all the assignments they get through the market
- Input any other income, or absence of, and sign to confirm online
- Permit the marketplace to report back to their JCP advisor, through a secure website, on whether they have complied with the conditions above at the end of each week.
Assuming they do comply, their weekly benefits due can then be automatically calculated and transferred based on their income that week.
Benefits of Slivers-of-Time Working for claimants
The second route has several advantages over the first:
- The individual can work immediately, an hour after starting to sign-on for example.
- JCP clients no longer have a negative perception with employers. They are not claimants being pushed into a job but individuals who are choosing to interact with the labour market on their own terms knowing they have a safety net if the right kind of bookings aren't out there.
The person wakes up each morning "poised for work", they don't necessarily know if they'll be working today or not. That's a different mindset from the long haul through listings, application forms and interviews.- Cash-in-Hand working becomes difficult. In your periods of availability you may get a booking just as you undertake a shift for a mate at the local pub.
Changing the rules
Allowing individual claimants to manage their own interaction with the labour market creates new dynamics. It can, for instance, overcome "the benefits trap". Instead of a static "income disregard", payments can reduce as more and more work is done.
At present someone on Income Support can find themselves loosing all benefits if they earn more than £20 a week. So, they work hard to stay on benefits because all existing income can dry up if they earn £21.
A more sophisticated marketplace could operate a taper, like this:
As the individual's earnings (dotted line) increase, her benefits (red line) decrease. But overall income (purple line) rises.
The more work a person does on this scheme, the more they take home. But their benefits are going down continuously. To stop people living long term on a combination of earnings and benefits, the rules could be such that claimants are allowed to work their way along this graph for perhaps six months only.
Clearly there are JCP clients who could not be expected to work this way without considerable support. But these new marketplaces can make that support very cost-effective. See Buying support workers through Slivers-of-Time.
Jobcentres and technology
One barrier to this sort of innovation could be the DWP's problems with IT systems which may have diminished enthusiasm for computing solutions in the benefits system. But Slivers-of-Time Working can be a bottom-up facility, offered by agencies to anyone with time to sell. It is funded by the inherent value of the individual's hours (although there may be a charge for the reporting).
This is the opposite of centrally planned, top-down infrastructure. If policy is changed to encourage small amounts of work, the recruitment industry can provide a solution that JCP staff can access through a web browser.
