To Strengthen Neighbourhoods

• They often have to employ, train and invest in people from outside of the area to undertake work that needs doing because local unemployed people are too frightened of losing their benefits to take up part time or short term opportunities
• Money that could be spent in the local economy is lost to other areas or other private sector contractors
• Valuable work that could be done in the local area is often not done and the local knowledge of local people is not utilised
• Organisations are in difficulty if they want to reward any work through payment in kind or in cash as they face breaking the law if they do this

The Community Allowance would enable community organisations to:

• Employ, train and support local people with local knowledge which will benefit the area
• Ensure that money that is spent in the local community goes into the pockets of local residents, not private sector contractors
• Ensure vital work for the health of the community is carried out; this work will benefit the local community in a number of ways, making it cleaner, greener, safer, healthier and more inter-connected
• Provide support to long term unemployed people in a venue and in a manner that they find accessible and welcoming and support them to progress into work

We estimate that between 80-160 part time (4 hours a week) jobs could be created for every neighbourhood if the Community Allowance was introduced into the UK benefits system.