Care in a Time of Austerity: the Electronic Monitoring of Homecare Workers’ Time

However, there has been little examination of the specific organisational mechanisms through which the value of paid carework is undermined Since 2010, the UK government has implemented an austerity programme which has severely reduced state spending on public services. In this context, employers in the homecare sector have introduced telephone-based technology to monitor working time and support local authority commissioning of homecare from (mainly) privatesector providers (Rubery et al., 2011; UKHCA 2012; Our study is the first to consider how homecare workers experience this electronic monitoring and is based on in-depth interviews with female homecare workers in two neighbouring local authority areas in the South West of England. It is both timely and distinctive because we position and understand paid carework within an economic, cultural, and political landscape of austerity.