If you are considering working from home, you may have tried looking through the jobs pages of your local newspaper.  There aren't many jobs advertised that explicitly say that you can do them from home.  Of the ones that do say so, nearly all of them are scams.  If you are one of the unlucky ones, you may have even been caught out by one of them.

The usual lines are "Send us thirty quid and we'll post you information on employers that will let you work from home", "Amazing income addressing envelopes, working from home", or perhaps "Home based craft business".

If you have been unfortunate enough to have fallen foul to the first, then most likely, you will have received nothing, or very little in return.   The product, if delivered at all, is usually just a flimsy 'directory' of local (or even far away) factories who are known to use home workers.  If you spent a few hours on the phone armed with a copy of the Yellow Pages, you could achieve similar results, for far less cost.  These jobs are often seasonal, and nothing is guaranteed.

The second is just a form of barely legal multi-level marketing (MLM).  You usually receive a letter requiring you to take out an advert similar to the one you replied to, with the expectation of hundreds, or even thousands of replies, which you will, in turn, send the same letter out to.  In practice, the deluge of replies never materialises and you just end up out of pocket and resentful.

The last, and perhaps, most sinister type, usually involves purchasing kits for novelty items, jewelery or craft ornaments.  With scanty instructions, you are expected to construct and return the items, often only to be told that your work does not come up to standard.  You pay the postage.  The company probably sells the 'substandard' product anyway.

All of these scams, and more, just serve to underline the fact that so many people are desperate to find work from home.

The above information was obtained first-hand by Samantha Jones, the founder of the HEA.  Through bitter experience, she knows just about all of the pitfalls.

This is why the Home Employment Agency was born.

The HEA is a genuine home-run business.  Its aim is to bring home-workers and genuine employers together.

The HEA was founded on the following principles:

Everyone has the right to work from home if they so wish

No-one should have to pay to find work

Rates of pay should be fair, and in line with the National Minimum Wage

We will only do business with genuine employers

Home workers provide a substantial benefits to employers

I'm sure you were expecting one; any self-reliant, seasoned individual should do.  Truth told, though, there isn't one.  That's right, No catch. Disbelief?  That's not surprising, but here is the low-down:

You fill in a Candidate Profile  form, either a paper or electronic one

We record your details on our computerised database

When an employer contacts us for workers, we perform a Skills Match

If your name comes up, you will be contacted for permission to submit your details to the employer for consideration

If you are selected, you may be required to attend an interview

Once we have filled the employer's vacancy, we charge them a modest fee

Your only expense is a stamp or your online/phone time

Okay, you may know the adage "There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch", or TANSTAAFL, for short.  At HEA, we believe that this is the closest thing you're likely to see.