Pocket money jobs for a retiree with no English

[zendeveloper]

Need some brainstrorming from the hivemind.
Looking for some "pocket money" job ideas for the following situation.

A person in their mid-60s, with no English at all (and probably limited ability to learn it to any reasonable level from scratch now), who had a long professional career but it was not in the UK and their skills are not directly transferrable (let's say, a lawyer or an accountant).

Looking for a hobby job for them that would be more to satisfy a desire to be busy and useful rather than to earn money. Unfortunately, there are serious health restrictions so intense manual jobs are probably out of the question.

Living in London at the moment.

They are refugees, living with British family.

Or even offer conversation practise. It would have to be more advanced learners though because they don't have English.

Yes, absolutely, and I know people like that as well. 80 year olds at adult language courses do exist, but are likely to be a very self selecting sample, and hardly are a good benchmark for your average senior person's foreign language potential. For every retiree learning Cantonese there's probably two who lived in Spain for decades, but progressed only to "dos cervezas por favor".

This actually is a good idea, and they do enjoy daily walks anyway. Thank you!

I think family will need to be available to support the English around any role they do eg. to set it up. It's going to have to be a role where no reading, writing or speaking is required.
If family could help with collection and delivery, could they run an ironing service from home?
Dog walking service if family take the bookings?
Volunteering in community garden?

They already do it (after-school care) for their grandchildren, but probably would be scared to take on responsibility for someone else's child (as they wouldn't be able to, say, call an ambulance if something extreme happens).

I was surprised when you said Russian and Ukrainian as surely there are lots of people who speak those languages in London? Are there not groups/meet ups where you could go for advice? Does the local council, library, community hall not have such information and then maybe they could help out there, get a small job when they have been integrated into and are trusted by the group and know more people.

I think it is unlikely that they will find a paid job in all honesty. Lots of people are looking for work at the moment and a job which is fairly 'easy' i.e. doesn't demand much manual labour OR communication - well - that job is going to be in demand. Realistically, lots of people who are younger and do speak English would love a job like that.

I would really not want to put that pressure on them to get paid employment. Think about looking into volunteering. There are loads of nice volunteer projects. Is there a community garden nearby? They are often really lovely and accommodating to people with additional needs, and might be able to find something low intensity that they could do.

At my community garden there is an older woman who doesn't speak much English and her role is doing the coffee and making cakes each week - she seems to love it and get a lot from it - but of course it would be unpaid.

Another option is if there is any kind of craft that they can make - can they knit, sew, paint, etc? If they are handy with anything like that, they can make things and sell them at community fairs and maybe sell them on Etsy.

You'd think so, but it also means that there is an enormous competition for any tiny jobs there from much younger and energetic people who speak English at least on some level. We tried it, there's nothing there.

Could they do leafleting ?

When they don't speak English???

There are some Ukrainian community centres and churches in London. Could they help? I am not sure if it is still the case but I have a colleague with Ukrainian roots who was born here and his and other parents were keen for them to learn the language and culture so there were Saturday schools, may be ther eis still somethig like that they could help out at?

I know a lot of Polish community centres in London have been supporting Ukrainian refugees so they could be a good bet.

There are also a lot of Russian speakers in London.

Thank you! There's absolutely no pressure on them to get any paid employment at all, it is their idea that they "need to do something" and not be a burden. I can totally relate to this, and it made me think what would I do if I suddenly found myself in an environment where I cannot earn from my own profession and skill set.

No crafting skills unfortunately.

There are indeed, but as I explained above - there is an abundance of people at the moment, and many who are directly qualified for the job (e.g. language teachers). As volunteers, they are likely to be a liability, not an asset, unfortunately.

If that is the case, I really think their energy and time has to be directed in to learning at least a small bit of spoken English then.

I also came on to suggest leafletting. I believe most companies ask people to use a GPS tracker to prove delivery, so they'd need to use that. And they'd just need enough English to understand the "No junk mail" signs.

What a difficult situation!

My father after his stroke (lost his English) took up book binding as a hobby. It certainly kept him occupied. Lots of people at his church wanted their bibles and hymn books rebound. He also bound together magazines into books etc. He got a lot of pleasure out of doing that.

I'm not sure why so many people are suggesting dog walking or pet-sitting.

Would you really leave your pets with someone who didn't understand any of your instructions and who wouldn't be able to get them to a vet in an emergency?

PP mentioned council litter pickers, some of the London parks have volunteer groups that do litter picking, weeding, bench repairs etc.
Eg
hackney.gov.uk/parks-volunteering

But I don't know how they'd understand instructions in English.

And also who couldn’t text you updates. I think litter picking and leafleting sound like much better ideas, although for leafleting they’d need to be able to understand where they were supposed to go.

Befriending other native speakers as a volunteer.

Leaflet delivery, litter pickup, window cleaning maybe (would need help with customer admin). Carer/tutor in country of origin language. Those are all I can think of

Do they drive? Deliveries or taxi? Community driver?

I don't think anything to do with pets is an option, they are nowhere near the level of care expected here towards pets at all, I think it will just lead to massive issues on both sides.

No, don't drive.