on debt to meet basic needs and cope with economic shocks, such as costs associated with health treatment. Within households, pooling resources — wage and transfer income, produce from daman agreements, in-kind assistance — is a necessary measure to meet overall household needs; however, inter-household assistance also plays a vital role to bridge gaps, with nearly half of ex-Gaza households in Jerash receiving monetary or in-kind assistance from relatives in Jordan (see Table 9, chapter 3). Interviews undertaken in Jerash camp suggest that family members who have left the camp for work or marriage provide intermittent or regular monetary support but also that support is provided by relatives living alongside each other inside Jerash camp itself, a pattern which may in part explain the much lower value of private transfers received in Jerash camp (see Table 10, chapter 3). The value of such transfers may be small, but this reliance on wider social and familial networks as a ‘buffer’ cannot be understated and provides a lifeline for many households. Take the example of a young couple, married two and a half years earlier, and renting a small house in Jerash camp. The husband had, since their marriage, worked in multiple short-term jobs: as a sanitation worker in the Hadadah municipality, in a slaughterhouse, as a labourer tending and picking aubergines, in his brother’s business, and as a farmkeeper in Ramtha for a month. All these intermittent and short-term jobs were interspersed with unemployed periods where the couple struggled to pay the 50 JD monthly rent. The 21-year old wife explained how she ‘would go around [shops in the camp] and offer to clean the store’ at the end of the workday to try to secure a few JD, but they may still fail to gather enough for the rent: I either sell my phone or go to my mother. [...] Sometimes, when life becomes squeezed for us [...], he goes to his parents and takes the furniture with him — the furniture we have is a bedroom set, two mattresses and a TV table. He goes to his parents’ house with the furniture [and stays there]. We did it more than once; whenever we don’t have enough money to pay the rent, he would take me to his sister’s house until we have enough money and we [can] rent a house again 237. This case also aptly captures how this young couple of only two potential wage-earners live ‘on the edge’, unable to secure their (low) rent payments through wage income and without the savings to buffer them through harder times. Whilst this couple may be at the lower socio-economic end of residents, as seen, only 6% of ex-Gazans in Jerash reported having any savings. Jam’iyya saving was used by some residents for investments — ‘omra, buying a car, upgrading their shelter — but for many, irregular income precluded participation and the little that can be saved is quickly exhausted on necessary household expenses, particularly during winter. As a middle-aged woman explained: ‘All we have is the house and we need to manage. […] Where will I get this [the money to participate in a jam’iyya] when I work one month, and don’t work the next?’238. The fact that many residents lack any savings sits well with the finding that a significantly higher proportion of residents in Jerash are indebted and also report more difficulties managing and repaying debt (see chapter 3). Recalling that ex-Gazans much less often are covered by health insurance schemes, interviews noted that a major source of very large debts is costs associated with medical treatment – often thousands of JDs. One family interviewed, for example, had borrowed 2000 JD to cover the costs of surgery for the father. Whilst small institutional loans are available through UNRWA’s microfinance programme, residents overwhelmingly rely on their own networks. In the case above, half of the money was provided through in-laws and the rest from family and neighbours inside 237 238 Female, age 21, Jerash camp, 21 January 2016. Female, age 55, Jerash camp, 31 January 2016. Fafo Report 2019:34 122