Beyond Deterrence: Rethinking the UK Public Policy Approach Towards Undeclared Work

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Abstract
The aim of this article is to evaluate critically the UK public policy approach towards undeclared work that targets deprived populations and seeks to deter people from engaging in such work by ensuring that the expected cost of being caught and punished is greater than the economic benefit of participating. Reporting evidence from an extensive study of undeclared work in 861 households in contemporary England, this article reveals not only that such work is concentrated in relatively affluent populations rather than in deprived areas, but also that the vast majority of such work in deprived populations is conducted for friends, neighbours and kin for rationales associated with redistribution and building social capital rather than making or saving money. Given this recognition that undeclared work in deprived populations is in major part a product of a culture of paying for favours and a form of mutual aid, the argument of this article is that the current deterrence approach needs to be replaced by an approach that seeks to provide substitute mechanisms to enable such populations to continue to engage in such paid favours but in a more legitimate manner than is currently the case.

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