About The CampaignWhat we are fighting for
Campaign Context
Community Links has helped tens of thousands of children, teenagers, adults and older people in deprived neighborhoods of east London for 30 years.
Many have faced difficult challenges. They may be struggling to make ends meet or make a home in a new country. Some suffer form the consequences of being born into poverty – poor health, inadequate housing, loneliness and isolation. Others may just need some support to make life a little easier.
We run a network of over 60 community projects that aim to empower individuals and help them build their own ladder out of poverty – and towards a brighter future.
And our programme of national work shares the local lessons across the country to widen the impact of our projects and generate lasting social change.
80% of our staff live locally, many are former users of our services.
Watch the video to find out more about Community Links local projects in east London:
Campaign Context
Over the last eight years we have taken a particular interest in the informal economic activities of small businesses, the self-employed, and employee’s because the cash-in-hand or informal economy has such a huge impact on the lives of the people we work with, and plays such an integral role in their experience of poverty. We have found that on one hand it takes people out of ‘absolute’ poverty as they can now pay the rent or pay the debt collector knocking on their door. But on the other hand it traps them in ‘relative’ poverty as they are now working outside of the ‘mainstream’, and so do not have access to the national minimum wage, holiday or sick pay, or legal protection.
Definition of people working informally:
‘Work that involves the paid production and sale of goods or services which are unregistered by, or hidden from, the state for tax, benefit and/or labour law purposes, but which are legal in all other respects. This definition excludes criminal or illegal activities such as drug dealing or prostitution.’
Definition first proposed by Thomas in 1992, used by the EU in 1998 and adopted by the Small Business Council in 2004
The Facts and Figures
• The TUC Vulnerable Workers Project has estimated that there are 2 million vulnerable people potentially working cash-in-hand in the UK. To find out more download the report
• The European Commission estimated in 1998 that the informal economy constituted up to 16% of GDP in industrialised nations
• The size of the informal economy is estimated to be 12.3% of the GDP, whilst finance, insurance and high street banks form 7.9% of the GDP, putting the size of the informal economy into perspective.
• The Small Business Council have shown that 85% of the work in the UK’s informal economy falls into construction and domestic services
• The National Audit Office recommends an approach based on more carrots and less sticks, estimating a £19:23 return. (Read the report here)