'Timebanks' - using time as money

'Time banks' have been developed in Gloucestershire as a system to create a value for unpaid work/help that people offer each other. Their aim is to make informal support easier and more worthwhile to give and to get, by giving each hour of help a value that can be traded.

A form of 'reciprocal volunteering', they are based on the idea that everyone has something to offer - but sometimes people need to recognise the value of their skills and to know how and where to offer them to others.

Because those involved in time banks give their time as well as receive help from others, the relationships generated are more equal than in traditional volunteering. The latter can emphasise a recipient as being just that - someone who only receives help and who may therefore feel relatively powerless/lacking in 'value'. Time banks, in contrast, can help to foster a community identity in which everyone is valued and (importantly) can value themselves.

The design of time banks couldn't be simpler. For every single hour spent doing something for another member of the scheme, you are given one time credit. These credits can then be exchanged for the services offered by any of the other people involved in the scheme. So an hour collecting someone's pension could be 'spent' on a piano lesson. An hour digging a garden could be 'spent' on having someone do your ironing for you.

Unlike LETS (local exchange trading systems) and other similar schemes, the time bank's currency is time. One hour of service given earns one hour of someone else's time that can be claimed. So there is no conflict with benefit or tax regulations. (Schemes that use a 'local pound' or similar unit of exchange have sometimes led to individual members having difficulties, particularly with the Benefits Agency.)

In a time bank an hour walking a dog is as valuable as an hour tutoring maths, an hour shopping as important as an hour helping with IT skills.