Condiciones que facilitarían el Crecimiento Postraumático

The challenge for policy development is to balance the negative consequences of paid informal work with its positive impacts for tackling deprivation and reducing social exclusion. This is a fairly common dilemma for advanced economies; ‘States responding to the existence of an informal sector are faced with a quandary regarding wanting to encourage entrepreneurial attitudes and self-help and wanting to reduce the potentially divisive effects of tax evasion and welfare abuse’ (Leonard, 1999a, p158).

Mateman and Renooy (2001) conducted a review of policies to combat undeclared labour in Europe and are of the opinion that ‘successful policy is that policy which specifically tackles a mix of factors and circumstances. A successful policy should be tailor made and there are no standard recipes to be applied’ (Mateman and Renooy, 2001, p.75). They do however identify a

number of policy options to address different causes of the growth in undeclared work, and these constitute a ‘toolbox’ (see Table 3.2).

They identify four ‘drawers’ in their ‘toolbox’:

•

Changing the system: This is most appropriate when ‘undeclared work is caused by an inflexible labour market, rigid legislation or high non-wage labour costs’ (Mateman and Renooy, 2001, p.75).

•

Enhancing access to the formal economy: The poverty (or benefit) trap or over-bureaucratisation of procedures may act as a barrier to entering the labour market entry.

•

Enforcing the system: In circumstances where undeclared work stems from the unwillingness of citizens to obey regulations or due to inadequate enforcement of the system, then the strategy is to improve that enforcement.

Paid Informal Work

•

Changing attitudes and behaviour: Different public attitudes and

behaviours can be lead to the sustenance of the paid informal economy. If people are unwilling to pay taxes it may be because they are unhappy about the way the state spends their taxes. There may be local cultural acceptance of certain informal economy activities – eg various cash in hand activities that might also constitute ‘gift’ payments for a ‘good turn’ – eg babysitting, house cleaning, decoration, etc. ‘It seems that some level of undeclared work is deeply rooted into the culture of peoples all over Europe’ (Mateman and Renooy, 2001, p.77).

States can also choose to ignore informal economy (eg in states in southern Europe the informal economy tends to be tacitly encouraged as a necessary survival strategy because of inadequate welfare provision). Finally, states can try to legalise the informal economy.

Therefore, it appears that policy development needs to take account of at least three factors in relation to paid informal work and especially with regard to deprived neighbourhoods. Firstly, as we have stressed, to establish whether the paid informal work is an activity conducted independently, semi-independently in a way that is dependent upon an ‘employer’ or single regular ‘client’, or dependently and bound closely to formal economic activity (Gershuny, 1979;

Kesteloot and Meert, 1999).

In terms of policy development, governments might disregard dependent types of paid informal work, as they clearly involve unfair market competitive

advantage and exploitation (both in terms of wages and conditions). As such

Table 3.2 Policy Development and Paid Informal Work (Following Mateman and Renooy, 2001)

CHANGING THE SYSTEM

Measures to include: tax reductions, social security contributions reductions, deregulation, subsidised employment, increased flexibilisation of employment relationships and service vouchers, introducing more direct democracy (to get citizens more involved in the process) and creating one-stop shops for all employment related administration, which reduces obstacles to entering the labour market (and also enhances likelihood of inter-agency work).

ENHANCING ACCESS TO THE FORMAL ECONOMY

Measures (‘carrots’) to include: coaching and advice in tackling the ‘formalities’, business start-up grants, tax credits for the employed and training for civil servants to improve efficiency and transparency of the related systems.

ENFORCING THE SYSTEM

Measures to include: stepping up controls, increase sanctions for offending employers/employees, increase co-operation and data exchanges between appropriate authorities, a hotline for anonymous reporting of undeclared working, an efficient central population register, increasing registration and identification requirements, regular unannounced checks/house visits to benefit claimants, stricter immigration policy, strict border controls and excluding companies who have made use of informal labour from public tenders.

CHANGING ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR

Main measures: awareness raising and information campaigns.

Informal Economic Activities and Deprived Neighbourhoods

they are largely a matter between formal institutions (mainly firms) and their regulators (eg Inland Revenue, Customs and Excise, Companies’ House, Health and Safety Executive, etc.) and current policy arrangements are in place

regarding such activity.

Secondly, policy development might consider the motivations of people involved in paid informal work in deprived neighbourhoods. At least three can be identified: profit and enterprise entry, labour market entry, and mutuality as coping strategy and/or for community building.

Thirdly, there are strategic action factors which depend upon the political stance of those in authority towards paid informal work and the motivations driving it.

Depending upon political stance these actions might include:

•

eradicating paid informal work by deterrence and punishment (Mateman and Renooy, 2001; Grabiner, 2000)

•

re-configuring the economy to formalise the activity (eg incentives to enter the formal labour market – eg formalisation projects – see case study 2)

•

changing features of the system in order to regularise existing paid informal economic activity (eg shift income tax threshold or change earnings

disregard levels)

•

facilitating paid informal activity (eg enabling LET schemes, the Back to Work bonus and the Test Trading initiative)

•

generating variations of such initiatives such as the possibility of groups of the unemployed active in similar paid informal work establishing and ‘test trading’ an enterprise as a social enterprise. Direct ‘mentor’ support from an established social enterprise could be made available. The main role of such a mentor would be to provide hands on business support services, but also to ‘hold’ the trading income of the new social enterprise until those

working in it are collectively deemed ready to cease claiming benefits whilst working and trading formally

The main purpose of such a framework is not to identify specific measures but to establish the parameters for developing and applying measures appropriate to the circumstance and the political options for strategic action facing policy makers. Of course these options may be different for different local

circumstances (eg they may apply differently in deprived neighbourhoods compared to elsewhere) and for different groups (eg immigrants, ethnic minority cultures, and single parents).

The Government’s current package of policies towards informal economic activity include some of the options highlighted in Table 3.2 as previously discussed in more detail in section 3.4.

Paid Informal Work

In document UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID (página 142-158)