Fiddly Jobs, Undeclared Working and the Something for Nothing Society

Abstract

Whilst it may be easy to dismiss ideological diatribes about `a something for nothing society' as empty rhetoric, there are relatively few recent studies with which to assess claims about `benefit scroungers' and `dole fiddlers'. Qualitative methods were employed to explore the ways in which some working-class people in an economically depressed locality did `fiddly jobs' (i.e. working `undeclared' whilst in receipt of unemployment benefits). The research explored the motivations underpinning fiddly work and the normative values surrounding it. Informants expressed a clear and conservative morality which stood at odds with descriptions of a `welfare underclass' or `dependency culture': most common types of fiddling (irregular, low-paid, temporary) were economically necessary and were done (usually by men) in order to support household incomes and to preserve self-respect. Fiddly work was distributed through local social networks which allowed a minority to maintain an involvement with work culture and to avoid some of the worst material and social psychological consequences of unemployment. Thus fiddly jobs in sub-contracted and other sectors of casualised work are part of a survival strategy through which some people develop alternative ways of working in the face of restricted avenues for legitimate employment and a system of benefits which failed to meet people's material needs.