by Kate McFarland | Dec 5, 2016 | News
Malcolm Torry, Director of the Citizen’s Income Trust and co-secretary of BIEN, delivered a public lecture titled “Money for everyone: The state of the Basic Income/Citizen’s Income debate” for the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at the University of Bath on October 11, 2016. In it, he describes proposals for funding and administering a basic income.
A summary of Malcolm’s lecture has been posted on the Institute for Policy Research website, and the entire lecture is also available in both video and audio formats.
The lecture was held as part of IPR’s ongoing project Examining the Case for a Basic Income, which is studying the design and implementation of a basic income proposals in UK. The project description states:
A key aspect of the project is to ask whether and in what circumstances the UK public would support a UBI. To this end, the project is organising a number of public engagement activities to explore the wider issues and public concerns that implementing a UBI here might raise.
Torry’s lecture was the first in this series of public engagement activities.
On November 17, IPR sponsored a panel discussion and debate of basic income (Basic Income – An Idea Whose Time Has Come?), which was held as part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas.
Image: CC BY-SA 2.0 dotpolka
by Kate McFarland | Dec 3, 2016 | News
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) was named the UK Social Policy Think Tank of the Year at the 16th annual Think Tank Awards, held in London on November 28, 2016.
Anthony Painter CC BY 2.0 G20 Voice
The award was decided in part on the basis of the RSA’s work on basic income, exemplified in December 2015 report “Creative citizen, creative state: the principled and pragmatic case for a Universal Basic Income“ by Anthony Painter (Director of the Action and Research Centre) and researcher Chris Thoung.
According to a summary in Prospect, the British magazine that hosts the annual award, the judges described the RSA “a great and well respected institution which nonetheless continues to innovate” and specifically commended its “outstanding” work on basic income, which demonstrates “a rare ability to marry a big and disruptive idea with determined number-crunching”.
Painter, who accepted the award for the RSA, told Basic Income News:
This award was not just for the RSA’s work on Basic Income – honoured as we are to receive it. Our analysis was grounded in decades of work by thinkers, researchers, and activists. It reflects their work too.
But there’s something else. The award marks another moment in the case for Universal Basic Income moving relentlessly from margins to mainstream. And this case will get stronger until it becomes irresistible. We look forward to continuing to work with many others to keep the momentum going.
Established in 2001, Prospect’s Think Tank Awards recognize the contributions of think tanks in several regions (the US, EU, and UK) and areas of specialization (Economic and Financial Affairs, Energy and the Environment, Social Policy, and International Affairs).
The RSA was founded in 1754, and now has a network of 28,000 supporters worldwide. Past members include such notable individuals as Charles Dickens, Michael Faraday, and Karl Marx.
Watch a short video introduction to the RSA’s work on basic income (featuring Anthony Painter):
Read More:
Prospect Team (November 29, 2016) “Think Tank Awards 2016: The Winners,” Prospect.
Thanks to Anthony Painter and Jamie Cooke for information and contributions to the article.
Cover photo CC BY-NC 2.0 Laura Billings
by Dave Clegg | Nov 27, 2016 | Opinion
Rutger Bregman spares so-called liberals and progressives no punches in the online Guardian 8/19/16. Bregman castigates the Left for its pathetic failure in not seizing the moment after the 2008 U.S. “financial crisis… borne of blind faith in market wisdom and an utter lack of public oversight”.
Bregman acknowledges that the Left has a long history of championing for the underdog, the poor, asylum seekers, the discriminated against, the disabled and others. But these groups do not stir the imagination of the masses. Instead, the masses look away, are distrustful and often too judgmental to care. We want winners, they cry!
For Bregman the Left needs to stand up, raise its collective voice and champion things like real, effective banking reform, meritocracy, innovation and investing in a nation’s human capital through the use of a Basic Income for all to reclaim that lost ground.
by Kate McFarland | Nov 23, 2016 | Research
Malcolm Torry, director of the UK’s Citizen’s Income Trust (CIT) and co-secretary of BIEN, has prepared a report on implementing a citizen’s income (i.e. a basic income for UK citizens) for the Institute for Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW).
Malcolm Torry (picture: Citizen’s Income Trust)
In a report written for ICAEW’s opinion column, its “Outside Insights“ series, Torry develops four different proposals to implement a basic income guarantee wherein weekly cash grants are disbursed in equal amounts to all adult UK citizens. (As mentioned below, however, two of the proposals recommend that the government move toward a universal basic income by first introducing equal and unconditional cash transfers within certain subpopulations.)
As is common in the UK, Torry refers to the policy as a “citizen’s income”, which he defines as “an unconditional, non-withdrawable income, paid automatically to every individual as a right of citizenship” — or, roughly, a universal basic income for citizens. (Here, I will use the terms ‘basic income’, ‘UBI’, and ‘citizen’s income’ interchangeably.)
On Torry’s proposals, the amount of the payouts would be the same for all citizens, regardless of earnings, although higher earners might be taxed more heavily. This is slight but notable difference from the form of basic income guarantee under consideration by the government of Ontario, for example, which is planning to test a model wherein the amount of the cash grants is tapered off with earnings (that is, a negative income tax).
The ICAEW report briefly addresses several common objections to basic income, and reviews the types of “feasibility” analyzed in detail in Torry’s book, The Feasibility of Citizen’s Income, published earlier in the year –including (to use his terms) financial, psychological, behavioral, administrative, political, and policy-process feasibility.
A Citizen’s Income: Four Schemes
Against this background, Torry investigates four specific models for implementing a basic income:
1. The first proposal is to introduce a universal basic income at a level at least as high as the UK’s current benefit cap, which would replace current means-tested social assistance. Torry notes that this scheme would be most feasible in a highly automated economy, in which a portion of the proceeds on machine production could be used to fund the citizen’s income, and wherein any potential work disincentive effects of the UBI would be benign to the economy. However, he does not believe that it is currently financially feasible, since financing it would require either massive increases in income tax rates or additional sources of revenue.
2. The second proposal is to introduce a smaller level of UBI (e.g. £60 per week for working age adults) without abolishing current means-tested benefits. Under this scheme, the government would take account of the amount of income received through the UBI when determining eligibility for additional social welfare benefits. Torry states that this scheme could be funded by a 3% increase in income taxes. However, he hypothesizes that it would be unpopular (psychologically infeasible) due to the redistribution of money from income earners to other working-age adults.
3. The third proposal is to phase in a UBI by gradually introducing it to successive age-cohorts of young adult. Torry recommends that the government begin with a universal child benefit £45 per week per child under the age of 16, and a citizen’s income of £60 per week for each person 16 years of age. The latter would then retain the citizen’s income in subsequent years, while those who turn 16 would begin to receive it.
Torry notes that, without additional pressure to implement a fully universal basic income, it could take 40 to 50 years for the entire population to receive the unconditional benefits. However, he believes that it is one of the most feasible options (on all dimensions of feasibility).
4. The fourth and final proposal, which Torry also considers to be relatively feasibility, is to phase in a UBI in the opposite age-wise direction: beginning by introducing the benefit to “pre-retired” adults (e.g. those over age 60) who voluntarily opt into the program.
The ICAEW has more than 147,000 members worldwide from the finance professions. The organization itself does not take an official stand on citizen’s income.
Read More:
The full report is available for download from the ICAEW website: Malcolm Torry, “How might we implement a citizen’s income?“
The CIT has also published a blog post summarizing the results of the report: Citizen’s Income Trust (November 16, 2016) “ICAEW report on implementing Citizen’s Income”
Article reviewed by Ali Özgür Abalı
Cover image: “Chartered Accountant’s Hall” CC BY-SA 2.0 R4vi
by Kate McFarland | Nov 8, 2016 | News
The Work and Pensions Committee of the UK House of Commons is currently looking for participants to argue for or against a universal basic income (or “citizen’s income” as UBI is often known in Britain) at a one-off oral evidence session. This session will be held on January 12, 2017, at the University of Birmingham.
Interested participants must send a brief overview of their background and interest to the Work and Pensions Committee by December 2.
For more information, see “Committee explores introducing a citizen’s income” at the UK Parliament website.
Background: The UK Context
UBI is a topic of active debate in the UK, with several think tanks recently proposing various models for a national basic income scheme — including the Citizen’s Income Trust (BIEN’s UK affiliate), Compass, and the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce). The Fabian Society has prepared a report recommending a related policy, “individual credits”, while not endorsing basic income.
In September, the Trades Union Council — a major federation of British trade unions — endorsed basic income, following the UK’s largest union, Unite, which itself endorsed basic income in July.
Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, has expressed interest in investigating UBI, and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has been a long-time supporter.
Basic income has been the focus of other recent discussions in the House of Commons, including a debate in September and a public discussion in May.
Reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan
British Parliament CC BY 2.0 Maurice
