Beating the Poverty Trap: Welfare Solutions
Citizen’s Income
Our complex, bureaucratic and expensive benefits system is desperate for an overhaul and we are suggesting a radical new approach.
We propose to introduce a Citizen’s Income to every woman, man and child in the UK, without means-testing and without the requirement to be in, or seeking, employment. It will be a universal right to cover basic needs.
A Citizen’s Income will:
- provide a basic income for those not recognised by the current benefits system such as full-time parents, carers, students and volunteers;
- allow people to take fulfilling part-time or voluntary work. It would also support those starting new businesses of their own;
- ensure the poorest and most vulnerable in society are adequately provided for, boosting their income by 25% and ensuring they do not have to go through a complicated process to obtain basic financial security.
- slash the millions currently spent on benefits administration, benefits fraud and fraud detection;
- end the scandal of up to £6·3 billion of much-needed benefits going unclaimed every year.
Citizen’s Pension
To solve the “pensions crisis”, both the SNP and the Liberal Democrats have adopted the idea of a Citizen’s Pension. Greens are delighted that they have moved some distance towards a Citizen’s Income scheme. We believe that a Citizen’s Pension should only be seen as a first step towards a full Citizen’s Income Scheme. Independent studies by the National Association of Pension Funds have shown that a Citizen’s Pension could be afforded today within current net expenditure on state pensions.
For pensioners, Citizen’s Income means:
- an increase of between 27% and 33% in the basic state pension for everyone (it is set initially at the level of the Pension Credit Guarantee, around £109 a week for a single pensioner and £167 for a couple from April 2005);
- unconditional payments for all old age pensioners, regardless of savings or NI payments paid in the past;
- the abolition of the means-tested Pension Credit.
The total level of unclaimed benefit (Income Support, Minimum Income Guarantee, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit & income-based Jobseekers Allowance) in 2002/03 was between £3,300m and £6,260m, whilst the level of non-takeup for non-pensioner income support and Job Seekers Allowance is between £860m and £2,140m. The Republic of Ireland is now seriously discussing the introduction of a Citizen’s Income of £70 per week for adults, and £30 per week for children. A study from the University of Cambridge showed that an initial Citizen’s Income scheme could be fiscally neutral.