Background
to the
Research
- The motivations and behaviour
of the long-term unemployed has been an area of controversy in social
research. A number of qualitative studies are providing evidence of
the complexity of these decision-making processes and exposing the
limitations of economic theory in terms of explaining these processes.
Research
Approach
- The author draws on data from qualitative
research projects, the NI component of which was carried out in Coleraine
in order to explore the decision-making process of unemployed and
low income men and women and to examine the finding that not all forms
of income are treated as equal.
Main
Findings
- Unemployed people who took part in the
research had high commitment to employment, even where wages will
yield the same amount of money as benefits.
- There was a high level of search activity
among the long-term unemployed in the research.
- Barriers to taking employment caused by
the social security system were evident, particularly in respect of
non-standard forms of employment.
- There was a significant degree of resistance
to relying on in-work benefits.
- There was a gap between what people say
they need financially from work and what they do (when applying for
particular jobs)
- People did not think about all sources
of income in the same way; there was a fundamental difference in the
value attributed to money from earnings to money from means-tested
benefits.
- Sums of money that are numerically the
same are not necessarily worth the same amount: the value of a sum
of money depends on its capacity to help achieve long-term household
expenditure and social objectives.
- Families attached weight to the ways in
which relying on different sources of in-work income could have different
consequences. There was a perceived risk involved in accepting a low
paid job supplemented by an unknown and uncertain quantity of benefits.
- Financial stability was highly rated by
families. In order for a sum of money to effectively help attain household
expenditure objectives it had to be stable and predictable. The value
of money is regulated by more than simple arithmetic and quantity;
it is regulated by sources, timing and predictability.
- The assumption of rational choice under
conditions of certainty, which underpins traditional labour market
supply theory, does not appear to be valid on the basis of the empirical
evidence. Uncertainty derives from imperfect knowledge and particularly
from being aware that one has imperfect knowledge and from the degree
of control which a person has over the various components of the income
package.
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