Does work pay? Spatial variations in the benefits of employment and copingabilities of the unemployed

The aim of this paper is to evaluate whether there are spatial variations i n first, the benefits of living in a household with wage earners rather tha n a wholly jobless household and second, the coping abilities of jobless ho useholds. To do this, 511 households in various neighbourhoods in a relativ ely affluent southern city and a poorer northern urban area in the UK are s tudied in terms of their ability to get tasks completed that they perceive as necessary. First, this reveals that one is 'better-off' living in a jobl ess household in the northern than the southern city in terms of one's abil ity to get necessary tasks completed. Second, it finds that 'work pays' in this southern city more than the northern city. The gap between jobless and wage-earning households in their ability to get necessary tasks completed is far greater in the southern than the northern city. In so doing, the pap er highlights the need for more comprehensive data on the regional variatio ns in the cost-of-living for jobless and wage-earning households and for a fuller analysis of the regional impacts of national welfare-to-work policie s as well as whether these need to be regionally differentiated in order to become more effective. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.