The Observer - 30 November 1997

TAKING your elderly neighbour to a hospital appointment might soon by an investment rather than just a good turn. A scheme to 'pay' volunteers who take part in charitable work is to be launched next spring. Instead of cash, they will be paid in time. If they spend an hour taking a grandmother to hospital, they will be entitled to an hour of another volunteer's time.

The 'service credit' programme originated in America and is a key element in a presidential effort to rebuild fragmented communities in inner cities. There are more than 200 schemes in the US and one in Japan.

Last month Edgar Cahn, the guru of service credit, flew to London to explain to 20 local government chief executives how underfunded social and health services could be improved at no cost.

Service credit will be an important plank in the Government's plans to rescue some of the worst areas in Britain. When the social exclusion unit starts works next month, one of its major tasks will be motivating people to 'turn around' problem estates and localities.

The first British scheme, to be called Fair Shares, will be launched in May by the district council in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, in conjunction with a local charity the Barnwood Trust.

In the US, participants earn one 'time dollar' for each hour spent helping someone else. A simple computer programme records every dollar earned and spend and volunteers receive regular statements.

The Clinton administration has ruled that time dollars are tax-free. This is important for volunteers who use them to 'pay' for health care. Several companies have agreed that time dollars can be exchanged for goods.

Americans are building up credit accounts as a form of old-age insurance. They do voluntary work now to qualify for help when they become infirm. Time dollars can be traded for meals-on-wheels, house cleaning and even nursing care.

They are used to pay for neighbourhood security patrols, computer training work-shops and food banks. In Chicago, teenagers who agree to 'mentor' younger pupils can 'cash in' their dollars on computer software.

Young people in Washington DC are paid in time dollars for participating in youth courts. Young delinquents are tried by their peers and, if convicted, face community service punishments. The offenders are then paid in time dollars for their community service.

In Brooklyn, time dollars fuel an alternative economy for the aged. They can be 'spent' on telephone bingo, bereavement counselling and reducing health insurance costs.

Martin Simon, voluntary sector liaison officer for Gloucestershire County Council, who has drawn up the blueprint for the Forest of Dean scheme, says: "People feel their efforts are appreciated and valued. New friendships grow and people begin to trust each other.

"Human contact and laughter help more than anything else in preventing depression. People who feel good about themselves are more likely to resist disease."

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