UNITED KINGDOM: Shadow Secretary of State Responds to Basic Income Query

by | Jun 23, 2014 | News

[F. H. Pitts]

Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, reaffirmed the Labour Party’s position on proposals for a basic income this week, in response to a query from a constituent of the Selly Oak MP Steve McCabe. Noting that the Labour Party had discussed the possibility of a basic income in the past, Reeves stated that it had been concluded the measure was riddled with ‘severe difficulties’. The principal concerns expressed by Reeves regarding such reforms are that public support would be lacking, and that it would undermine the obligation to work.

See a copy of Reeves’s letter here: https://imgur.com/byKvB0c

Rachel Reeves

Rachel Reeves

Simon Duffy “A Fair Income.”

by | Jun 21, 2014 | Research

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: In the final joint policy paper in our series with the University of Birmingham, Simon Duffy outlines the case for radical reform of the tax-benefit system. The current system is confusing and unfair, it locks the poor into poverty and imposes upon them the highest rates of tax. Instead we need to move to an integrated tax-benefit system, one that provides a guaranteed and reasonable level of income for all individuals and families. The paper proposes the creation of a system of Fair Income Security, a system that would have the following seven features:

  1. Integration of the current tax and benefits into one coherent system
  2. A consistent approach for benefits and taxation, more supportive of families, in all their forms
  3. The simplification of tax-benefit calculations into one set of questions
  4. A minimum income for all, delivered through a universal, non-means-tested, benefit
  5. Fair rates of taxation that remove the extreme disincentives for the poorest
  6. A constitutional right to a minimum guaranteed income and to fair taxes
  7. A public committee to shape the core entitlements, open to submission and scrutiny

Such a system would be fair, rational, economically sustainable, and would reflect the changing nature of modern society.

Simon Duffy “A Fair Income.” The Centre for Welfare Reform (UK), 2011.

Fiona Ranford, “Care work is a 24 hour a day job, Mr Balls, and should be paid as such.”

by | Jun 19, 2014 | Research

Mother and child, John H White, Flickr via Our Kingdom

Mother and child, John H White, Flickr via Our Kingdom

SUMMARY: According to this article, UK government proposal to 25 hours a week free childcare is to be welcomed. But it fails to get to the core of a sexist economy which relies on care work being done for free 24 hours a day. The author, Fiona Ranford, makes the feminist case for a Basic Income. Fiona Ranford is a feminist activist in London.

Fiona Ranford, “Care work is a 24 hour a day job, Mr Balls, and should be paid as such.” Our Kingdom, September 2013.