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From unemployment to self-employment: Can enterprise policy intensify the risks of poverty?

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  • Danson, Mike
  • Galloway, Laura
  • Sherif, Mohamed

Abstract

Analysis of the large rise in the numbers of self-employed in the UK reveals high levels of in-work poverty, especially among those coming off of social security benefits. Policies that are developed to alleviate social and economic risk regularly lead to behavioural responses to perceptions about the nature of such risk and to make individuals more accountable. Informed by accounting, finance and economic theories of risk, interviews with key informants who are experiencing self-employment and poverty, along with professionals from business and community development and poverty alleviation, are used to explore the support available to new entrepreneurs. Findings include that policy push from unemployment to self-employment shifts the social risks and responsibilities of employment from state and employers to those individuals with least capacity to bear them. Measures to mitigate resource disadvantage, including the New Enterprise Allowance Scheme, are found to be wanting and inadequate for the main client groups, and fail to reduce the social and economic risks faced in starting up a new business.

Suggested Citation

  • Danson, Mike & Galloway, Laura & Sherif, Mohamed, 2021. "From unemployment to self-employment: Can enterprise policy intensify the risks of poverty?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:75:y:2021:i:c:s1045235420300174
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2020.102164
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    2. Raunak Gupta, 2024. "Untangling the nexus of entrepreneurship and unemployment: a bibliometric review," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Evelyn Agba Tackie & Hao Chen & Isaac Ahakwa & Samuel Atingabili & Kobina Abaka Ansah, 2022. "Investigating the Relationship Between Local Business and Employment Creation for Poverty Reduction in Northern Ghana: The Moderating Role of Local Economic Development (LED) Policy," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.
    4. Heather A. Rogers & Pauline Deutz & Tomas B. Ramos & Andrew E. G. Jonas, 2024. "Quality of Working Life in the Circular Economy: the Case of Self-employment in the Repair Sector," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 1613-1630, June.

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