by Karl Widerquist | Oct 24, 2012 | Research
Here we uses computer simulation from survey data to estimate the outcomes for a genuine Citizen’s Income scheme: an unconditional and nonwithdrawable benefit for every citizen. The aim of the exercise was to test a variety of schemes. The study finds that by making a small number of changes to the present system in the United Kingdom, it is possible to establish a genuine Citizen’s Income scheme. Malcolm Torry is the director of the Citizens Income Trust (BIEN’s UK affiliate) and a parish priest and industrial chaplain for the Church of England.
The article is online at: https://www.citizensincome.org/
by Citizens' Income Trust | Oct 21, 2012 | Research
The latest edition of the Citizens Income Newsletter contains an editorial, the research note: “A Citizen’s Income scheme’s winners and losers” by Malcolm Torry, a review essay: “The message of James Robertson’s Future Money” by Conall Boyle,” book reviews, a viewpoint: “Why Austerity is the Wrong Answer to Debt” by Geoff Crocker, and more.
It’s online at: https://www.citizensincome.org/
by Karl Widerquist | Oct 17, 2012 | Research
On p. 21, guaranteed income is discussed ….
We should consider the idea of a guaranteed minimum income. Tom Kent, the late social policy giant who was the architect behind the Pearson-era reforms that shaped modern Canada, left behind a plea to look at such an approach. Kent argued that we should design a system to ensure a reasonable level of income for every Canadian, building on the basic income guarantee we already provide to seniors. Support would be given in the form of regular payments to those with very low incomes, phased out with rising income reported via tax returns. He believed that the federal economies of scale would provide considerable efficiencies and reduce federal/ provincial overlap and friction as provinces would focus on services (Kent 2011). Kent’s blueprints find supporters and detractors among both conservatives and progressives. There are significant issues of cost to be considered, as well as how to provide income support without discouraging work. Perhaps we could begin by providing a guaranteed income to persons with disabilities, including persons who are able to work but cannot do so on a continuing full-time basis.
The full report can be found at:
https://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/sites/default/files/documents/towards_a_more_equal_canada.pdf
by Citizens' Income Trust | Oct 12, 2012 | Research
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a new report, Does the tax and benefit system create a ‘couple penalty’? ‘The use of the MIS [Minimum Income Standard] scale, which uses research into minimum living costs to show greater economies of living in a couple than the official equivalence scales, suggests that separation penalties are larger and couple penalties smaller than those scales would suggest. Indeed, it shows no case of significant couple penalty other than in the scenario where the absent parent is able to live cheaply in social housing. Moreover, even the official scale used by the Government (the OECD scale) does not show a clear-cut economic advantage for families on low earnings to split up. In the single earner cases shown here, it shows a couple penalty in one scenario, a separation penalty in three scenarios and no difference in the other three. On the other hand, for a couple with two earners, it shows a substantial couple penalty in all but one of the five scenarios looked at here. So an in-work couple penalty can be identified for a particular group of couples on a particular set of assumptions.’ (p.29).
www.jrf.org.uk/publications/tax-and-benefit-couple-penalty
by Citizens' Income Trust | Oct 11, 2012 | Research
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has published a report, Reforming Council Tax Benefit, which reviews the Government’s plan to localise Council Tax Benefit: ‘Universal Credit is intended to simplify the benefit system by reducing the number of different benefits that claimants and administrators must contend with. Keeping council tax support (the means-tested benefit with the largest number of recipients) separate – and indeed allowing it to vary across the country – severely undermines this simplification. Universal Credit is also intended to rationalise work incentives by replacing a jumble of overlapping means tests with a single one, ensuring that overall effective tax rates cannot rise too high. Again, separate means tests for council tax support could undermine this, with the potential to reintroduce some of the extremely weak work incentives that Universal Credit was supposed to eliminate. It is difficult to think of reasons why the government’s original plan to integrate CTB into Universal Credit was inferior to what is now being proposed’ (pp.8-9). ‘Achieving coherence between council tax rebates and Universal Credit is complex. The need to make the new rebates fit with Universal Credit makes local authorities’ task of designing schemes, already a difficult challenge given the tight timescale, into a truly formidable one. There is nothing in the Universal Credit system that will make it straightforward to identify those who should be passported onto a full council tax rebate. That could make running a council tax rebate scheme based closely on the current system extremely challenging for local authorities … the advantages of localisation seem to be strongly outweighed by the disadvantages, particularly in the context of the welcome introduction of Universal Credit’. (p.107)
www.ifs.org.uk/publications/6183
by Citizens' Income Trust | Oct 10, 2012 | Research
The World Bank has published a report, The Cash Dividend: The rise of cash transfer programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, by Marito Garcia and Charity M. T. Moore. The authors conclude: ‘Much can already be learned from Sub-Saharan Africa’s experience with cash transfer programs. Evaluations of unconditional programs have found significant impacts on household food consumption (for instance, Miller, Tsoka, and Mchinji Evaluation Team 2007 for Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer Program; Soares and Teixeira 2010 for Mozambique’s Food Subsidy Program); nonfood consumption (for instance, RHVP 2009 for Zambia’s Social Cash Transfer); and children’s nutrition and education (including Agüero, Carter, and Woolard 2007 and Williams 2007 for South Africa’s Child Support Grant). A recent experimental evaluation found that a program for adolescent girls conditioned on their school attendance improved enrollment, attendance, and test scores in Malawi. Unconditional transfers in the same program decreased early marriage and pregnancy among girls who had already dropped out of school.’ (p.8).
https://bit.ly/ct4SSA
