Basic income in the United Kingdom

Basic income has been discussed in United Kingdom for much of the 20th and 21st century. The main British organisation promoting and analysing the idea is The Citizen's Income Trust. British political parties with basic income on the agenda are Green Party of England and Wales, the Scottish Green Party and the Scottish Socialist Party.

History

Speenhamland

The Speenhamland system was a form of poverty relief in England at the end of the 18th century and during the early 19th century. It started in the village of Speenhamland, but soon spread to most parts of the country. William Pitt the Younger tried to have the system implemented nationally but failed.

1920s to 1940s

Even though basic income and related ideas had been proposed a few times before the 1920s, it was not until then that a social movement seems to have started around the idea. Valter Van Trier has described this movement, which started in United Kingdom, in his book Every One A King. The key figures in the movement were Dennis Milner ("The State Bonus Leage"), G.H. Cole and Major C.H. Douglas. C.H. Douglas, a British engineer and social philosopher, developed a new economic philosophy which he labelled Social Credit. At the heart of the philosophy was a firm belief in the importance of individual freedom, but also that the monetary system had to be changed so that the market system could function properly. In short he combined monetary reform and basic income.

The Beveridge Report vs. basic income

The welfare state that exists in United Kingdom today, as well as in other countries, can be traced back to the Beveridge report, published in 1942, which stated that social insurances should be the main system in society for economic security. Besides that the report also proposed a selective system for those without access to social insurances. Beveridge himself did not like means-testing and selectivism, because it created high marginal tax rates for the poor (the "poverty trap"), but he nevertheless thought that it was a necessary complement. After the war many social policies were implemented, modelled after the Beveridge Report, and the "Beveridge-model" also became the international norm for the building of the welfare state.

Academic debate

Several British academics have been engaged in the basic income debate.

• James Meade, a left-leaning economist and winner of the 1977 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, took part in the basic income discussion from time to time. In his last books Full Employment Regained and Agathopia he returned to the question.

• Guy Standing has been very active in the debate since the 1980s. He is now especially well known for his theory about the so-called precariat, a new social class which he thinks is growing because of globalization, and that this development is yet another strong argument for why basic income should be implemented.^[1][2][3]

• Carole Pateman, a British political scientist, has declared that she sees basic income as a fundamental human right. For the system to reach its full potential, however, it is important that the level is not set too low.

Basic income in British politics

Political parties

Basic income is defended by the Green Party of England and Wales^[4] and the Scottish Green Party.^[5] For a period the Liberal Democrats also accepted it as official policy but have since modified their support.^[6]

Reforms and proposals

In 1943 Lady Juliet Rhys Williams proposed the "New Social Contract" as an alternative to the Beveridge Report. In short she proposed basic income in the form of a negative income tax, except that she also recommended a work test. James Mead developed the idea by abandoning the work test and with the income tax as the financing model.^[7] In 1972 the government of Edward Heath put forward a proposal for a tax-credit scheme which resembled a citizen's income in some ways but did not cover the whole of the population. In 1979 child benefit which is a citizen's income for children in all but name was introduced. In 2005 the Child Trust Fund was introduced, with children born after 1 September 2002 being eligible.

Organisations

"The Citizen's Income Trust promotes debate on the desirability and feasibility of a Citizen's Income by publishing a newsletter and other publications, maintaining a library of resources, and responding to requests for information."^[8]

See also

• Ailsa McKay

References