Citizen's Income: A proposal for fairer welfare system

In the run-up to Christmas it is easy to forget those in our own communities who are less fortunate than ourselves, people who cannot afford to buy the essentials and struggle to make ends meet. Many of these people are working incredibly hard for very little. Charities do fantastic work to attempt to mitigate the effects of low-pay, spiraling rents and a shrinking of the welfare state. However it cannot be left to volunteers to pick up the pieces of failed Government policy.
Citizen's Income: A progressive approach to welfare
Universal Basic Income (or Citizen's Income, CI) is a policy that has long been championed by the Greens. It allows for a society beyond the complex benefits system of today. Under CI, every citizen over the age of 18 is provided with an unconditional basic payment (£80 pw proposed by the Green Party).
The aim of Citizens Income is to eliminate the poverty traps which exist in today's society and allow people to provide for their families whilst choosing to work in a way which is fulfilling for them. This removes the fear and stress which currently exists in these people's lives, alleviating pressure on mental health services and the NHS more broadly. Once you consider CI you realize the far reaching, positive implications it can have on our society.
Many in the media like to stigmatize the poorest in our society for allegedly being a drain on the public purse because they claim excessive amounts of money in benefits. CI would also mark the end of that stigmatization of the poor as everyone would be given the same amount of basic income, meaning that no one person would be able to claim that the state was being unfair to them.


One of the main arguments I can foresee against CI is funding. Politicians from across the political spectrum can see the benefits that providing a basic income can bring but often can't see how it would be funded. A system of Citizen's Income could be partially funded by abolishing most current benefits, part of the aim of CI. At the 2015 general election the Green Party did calculations as part of an investigation into the feasibility of Citizens Income, a summary of the costings can be found in the table shown below:
Screenshot 2015-12-23 at 20.48.27.png
You can find a detailed document on the Green Party’s proposal for a Citizens Income here.

I would be naive to call CI the silver bullet in tackling poverty, but it certainly goes a long way to addressing some of the underlying issues with the current welfare state. Taken together with other Green methods of running our economy for the common good, CI can really make a difference. The fact is everyone deserves the basic means to a decent life, and in the one of the richest countries in the world this should be a right not a luxury.

Robert Nixon
Vice Chair, North Oxfordshire Green Party

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