Could you be paid to mend your ways?

By Duncan Walker
BBC News Online Magazine

The "appalling" drop-out rate from British schools is to be tackled with payments of up to £30 a week to pupils who carry on studying after they turn 16. Is it time the rest of us were paid to do things we'd rather avoid, but which would benefit society?

Fast food takeaways, supermarkets, garden centres and the other stalwarts of teenagers' first jobs could find themselves with a rota crisis later this year.

From September, 16-year-olds will be able to make up to £30 a week simply by opting to stay in education - and turning up for lessons.

It's hoped the scheme, which is open to all pupils whose parents earn less than £30,000 a year, will see more earning good qualifications - and fewer needing to resort to benefits later in life. Early studies suggest the tactic is likely to work.

So, if the government is prepared to pay teenagers to get them to achieve certain goals, should other people be given cash rewards for changing their behaviour?

Perhaps social problems like obesity, smoking and binge drinking - which all cost the country millions - could also be tackled by offering incentives to those responsible.

Reward to stop smoking

At a health centre in Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, GP Charles Buckley is paying £20 to each of about 20 patients who gave up smoking for the month of March.

He says the scheme has been a success, with a number apparently giving up for good. He is now looking at extending the idea - including the possibility of paying pupils at two local schools not to smoke.

Paying people not to do something will encourage them to do it in the first place Mark Schankerman

"They could get money at the start and then for each term they don't smoke," says Dr Buckley. "Or if they start, but then stop, they could get money for that."

Dr Buckley says he wants to give a "positive incentive" to those who stop smoking, and the £20 "treat" provides an alternative to the health warnings and high tobacco taxes normally used.

It is not the only time rewards have been looked at as a way to encourage people to quit smoking.

A scheme in north London saw patients who gave up entered into a raffle, with prizes including a weekend at a health farm and £250 in gift vouchers for a bicycle.

Subsidised gyms

Dr Buckley believes the long term costs of providing care to smokers who go on to develop serious health problems as a result more than justifies the cost of the rewards.

Should we be paid to lose weight?

He believes incentives could also be used in other areas.

In the US studies found that payments to patients made them more likely to take part in treatment programmes for problems including cocaine addiction.

In the UK, the government is considering subsidised gym memberships as a way of getting Britons to lose weight.

But the proposal was given short shrift by Derek Wanless, the author of a major report on improving the nation's health, who suggests it would benefit middle class people who are already gym members, without ensuring anyone actually goes.

Critics suggest it would be equally difficult to know that someone has actually stopped smoking, cut down on fatty foods, or reduced their alcohol consumption.

'Moral hazard'

Mark Schankerman, a reader in economics at the London School of Economics, says there is also a "moral hazard" in rewarding people for stopping certain types of behaviour.

"You get what you pay for," he warns. "Paying people not to do something will encourage them to do it in the first place."

Mr Schankerman, a researcher at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, says there is a case for paying the poorest students to attend college as it will give them the opportunity to go.

But for others the main reason for continued study should be the fact they will earn more anyway, he says.

Trading talents

Undaunted by the suggestion that cash can't be used to buy better behaviour, there are those who believe they have found an alternative way forward.

They back time banks - where people are encouraged to take part in the community by trading their talents.

"People, for example, could take someone's dog for a walk for one hour and in return for that they could get something like an hour's IT training," says Andrea Westall, deputy director of the think tank the New Economics Foundation.

This, rather than cash, is the best way to encourage people to change their behaviour in a way which benefits society, she believes.

"People end up putting in more time than they take out, it engages people who would not normally be involved and encourages people to make new social contacts and friends," she argues.

Could it be that goodwill, and not cash, is the best way to encourage people to change?

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Add your comments on this story, using the form below.

Ridiculous. I do not smoke, I am not obese, in fact I am generally no trouble to anyone. However I do not expect to be paid for this marvellous display of self-restraint. Nor should the self-indulgent and weak-minded be rewarded for reforming their selfish behaviour.
Gaz, UK

As someone who, at 22, has £15,000 debt from going to university it annoys me that the government are giving kids money to stay at school when this may well end up being the only reason they stay
Kate Boulton, England

It's one thing paying people to carry on at school when otherwise they wouldn't be able to afford it, but paying people to stop smoking is taking it too far.
Dave, UK

Paying people not to smoke? What ridiculous social bribery. How about making them pay when they DO smoke so the rest of us won't have to breathe second-hand smoke or pay their cancer bills later on.
Jeremy, USA

Addiction is not a joke that can be pushed aside with "treats" or threats. I came off heroin 11 years ago and my "treat" consist of being here to tell you the story. Addiction in any form or shape is a disease and like all diseases should be cured.
Anon, UK

I can see myself having a career in self improvement if people want to pay me to do it. I'd happily not go out drinking for £30 every week I didn't attend a nightclub, sponsors anyone?
David R, Plymouth, UK