Aims of pilots:
- To test the feasibility and impact of the Community Allowance on participants and their communities in a range of settings across the UK
- To capture learning and evidence that could inform a UK wide roll out of the Community Allowance
Outline description: the Community Allowance pilot programme would enable a range of unemployed people on any benefit to undertake part time work that strengthens their neighbourhood without it affecting their benefit status (including Housing and Council Tax Benefit and other passported benefits like free school meals and prescriptions). The pilot programme would last for 18 months, with participants registered on the Community Allowance for a maximum of 52 weeks at a time.
Scale of pilots: we envisage running 8-12 across the country, preferably one in each region and country if practical, in a range of rural and urban areas. In each area we anticipate identifying and working with a number of CREATE partners, each of whom would recruit, employ and support people. We have estimated that in each neighbourhood the Community Allowance would create around 80 part time jobs.
Type of Jobs: eligible jobs on the Community Allowance would be restricted to those that contribute to strengthening the neighbourhood. This would be defined and refined by the CREATE Consortium over the duration of the pilots through dialogue with the CREATE partners.
Community Allowance Participants: the Community Allowance is aimed at 1) people who have been left behind by the benefits system or are so called ‘hard to reach’ and 2) those that are only able to work part time and flexibly due to responsibilities to dependants or for health reasons.
Finances: the Community Allowance would be paid flexibly to suit an individual’s availability for work and/or the sessional work that is available; but maximum earnings on top of benefits would be capped at £4,305 or the equivalent of up to 15 hours a week on the minimum wage. Participants would be paid the minimum wage or more depending on the kind of work available and their skill base.
Real Time Evaluation: The CREATE Consortium will contract with an independent evaluator to carry out a real time evaluation of the pilot programme.
Want to be involved in the pilot programme?
We are looking for community organisations from across the UK that are interested in becoming a partner with CREATE in order to run the Community Allowance. If your organisation has the characteristics listed below contact us to find out more:
- Local community based charity, social enterprise or community interest company
- Trusted locally, with a track record of working with ‘hard to reach’ people
- Capacity and skills to support the Community Allowance participants
- Ability to generate local paid work (e.g. community research or youth work) or identify and place people in paid work that strengthens their neighbourhood (e.g. School Crossing Patrol)
