1. An artist’s model (life model) in Surrey can expect to earn £6.50 per hour for a session of normally two and a half hours . She - for it is usually a woman - will be treated as self-employed and receive payment in cash at the end of the class. She will also be allowed to jump the queue in the canteen and have a coffee or tea in any break. The rate is £6.50 for all hours worked - there are no premium payments for evening or Saturday morning classes. The atmosphere is reasonably congenial - there is no smoking in the studio.

Comment : her hourly rate is not excessive for outer London yet it is substantially above the National Minimum Wage rate of £3.60 (for example, the trade union Unison campaigns for a £4.90 NMW). The problem for the life model is the £15 limit for housing benefit. She cannot work for even a single session on Saturday morning (£6.50 @ 2.5 hours = £16.25). However, she will now be able to work for three sessions (£16.25 x 3 = £48.75) but not four sessions (£16.25 x 4 = £65) under the Therapeutic Earnings Limit of £58 (for a maximum of 16 hours). She can (in theory) achieve this in a single week day (10.30am - 1pm, 2pm - 4.30 pm and 7pm - 9.30pm) yet the 16 hour rule was (presumably) based on a notional two days of eight hours.

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2. An industrial relations researcher is asked to contact a training organization about an opportunity for freelance work involving the writing of case studies on good practice on a variety of work topics. The initial contact with the participating companies is a telephone interview. The rate for the work is £12 per hour. It is expected that the researcher will be asked to work at least three days per week.

Comment : the employer cannot offer him only four hours work (4 x £12 = £48 ie safely below the £58 TEL). The work is only temporary. It appears unrealistic for the researcher to even apply for further details of this short term assignment.

Patients’ Experience continued...