We have something along those lines where I live. People without jobs can apply for job at a local municipal job center. They centralize demands from people for small jobs like lawn mowing, cutting the bushes, painting, etc. People buy checks from them and pay the worker with those checks (with a fixed price per hour). Then the worker goes back to the center to deposit the checks. Then the center forwards the checks to the social welfare administration that converts them into real money for the worker.

I knew someone in a rough spot that went there and spent a day building a rabbit cage or something. When he got back to the center he was told that his SO earned too much for him to work there, they had failed to mention that when he got there first. So now he has checks worth nothing hanging on his walls.