Simon Duffy, the Director of the Centre for Welfare Reform in the UK, writes this list-style post as an introduction to the main benefits of a universal basic income. The Centre for Welfare Reform supports a universal basic income, and Duffy provides links to support most of his major points.
Simon Duffy, “Top 20 Reasons to Love Citizen Income”, Huffington Post, 21 April 2015.
A series of online Basic Income groups have been formed in the UK in the past couple of weeks. The groups are affiliated with BIEN member, Basic Income UK. About half of the groups are focused on local areas within the UK, e.g. Basic Income UK – South East England, while the other half are international and focused on societal groups amongst whom Basic Income could have support, e.g. Basic Income – Interfaith, Humanist, Agnostic and Atheist.
The groups were founded as part of a plan to solidify and encourage support of Basic Income amongst those who are already active as part of community organisations. Becca Kirkpatrick, the founder of some of the groups, said “Unions, churches, parent groups, carers groups, all of these have a huge part to play in expanding the conversation and helping to normalise the idea.”
The creation of the groups comes amid a growing number of local groups forming in different countries, including Canada, the USA and Ireland. A map of Basic Income local groups around the world is available here.
The full list of groups is as follows:
UK
National – https://www.facebook.com/groups/basic.income.uk/
West Midlands – https://www.facebook.com/groups/WestMidsBIUK/
North East England – https://www.facebook.com/groups/BI.UK.NE.England/
South East England – https://www.facebook.com/groups/SouthEastBIUK/
Trade Unionists – https://www.facebook.com/groups/TUBIUK/
International
Caregivers – https://www.facebook.com/groups/caregivers.for.a.basic.income.guarantee/
Interfaith, Humanist, Agnostic & Atheist – https://www.facebook.com/groups/BI.Interfaith.Nonfaith/
Active Life (Sports, Gardening) – https://www.facebook.com/groups/BI.ActiveLife/
A free talk will be given by Philippe Van Parijs of the University of Louvain at Oxford University at the date and time below. The talk is organised by the Department of Social Policy and Intervention.
“1516-2016: A very short historical introduction to Basic Income”, Oxford, UK, June 2, 2015, 5pm
For more information, go to: https://interestingtalks.in/Oxford/event/1516-2016-short-historical-introduction-basic-income/
Malcolm Torry, the director of the Citizen’s Income Trust, recently published a working paper that shows two different ways which would be financially feasible.
Malcolm Torry, “Two feasible ways to implement a revenue neutral Citizen’s Income scheme,” April 2015, Euromod Working Paper Series: EM 6/15, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex.
The Green Party of England and Wales received plenty of press over the past few months about their support of a basic income. While questions arose about whether they would keep basic income in their manifesto, they ultimately decided to keep it in their plans. Preparing for the general election on May 7th, the Green Party released their election manifesto and included a commitment to a basic income. Under the social security section of the manifesto, basic income is the first policy mentioned as the long-term plan of the Green Party, and it is included on the one-page executive summary at the front of the manifesto.
However, the Green Party admits that implementing a basic income in five years may be impractical and thus plans to conduct consultations and research on the basic income idea during a first parliament with the aim of implementation in a second parliament.
The Green Party released a basic income costing scheme alongside the manifesto, seeking to answer the major questions about funding a basic income in the UK.
The basic income rates they propose are the following: Child Benefit increased to £50 per week for all children, £80 per week for all citizens aged 18 to pension age, and a Citizen’s Pension rate of £155 per week for pensioners. They also add supplements of £80 per week for single parents and £25 per week for single pensioners. In total, this will cost £331 billion.
To fund this, the basic income replaces most means-tested benefits, totaling £163.767 billion, but notably keeps Housing Benefit and disability-related benefits. To fund the rest of the cost, the Green Party proposes abolishing personal income tax allowances, removing the primary and secondary thresholds for National Insurance contributions (NICs), eliminating Child and Working Tax Credits, and removing about 44% of the total of tax and National Insurance relief on pension contributions. These measures, partnered with savings on administration costs reach the desired £331 billion.
This basic income system essentially introduces a 32% taper rate (20% from income tax and 12% from NICs) on earned income under £31,785, at which point the income tax level would rise, moving the taper rate up to 52%. Further, a person under this system will need to earn about £13,000 before they pay more in tax and NICs than they receive in basic income. Comparing Universal Credit to this basic income scheme, people earning under £41,000 will gain from the switch to a basic income, equivalent to about four-fifths of taxpayers.
To learn more, check out the following links:
Green Party of England and Wales, “For the Common Good: General Election Manifesto 2015”, April 2015.
Green Party of England and Wales, “Basic Income: a detailed proposal”, Consultation Paper, April 2015.
