People in Switzerland can now deposit their time in banks as an old-age assistance program

The Swiss Ministry of Health has created a Time Bank program, wherein Swiss citizens can deposit their time into banks and in turn receive an equal amount of hours of assistance in return later in life.

Under the social security program, a person can volunteer their hours helping an elderly citizen, and then deposit those hours worked in a bank. Later in life, when the depositor needs assistance as an elderly citizen, they may take advantage of the hours they worked and receive hours of volunteer care themselves.

The Time Bank system is fairly simple in concept. One individual provides a time-based service to another individual on a volunteer basis, and the time is deposited in a bank to be used by the depositor for a later time-based service.

The Time Bank concept has been implemented in the United Kingdom, and Singapore is currently exploring using the system.