Now is the time to build a platform of security
Bianca Jagger (pictured), 75; David Suchet, actor, 74; Alan Titchmarsh (pictured), horticulturist and broadcaster, 71; Isla St Clair, TV personality, 68; David O’Leary, ex-footballer/manager, 62; Jimmy White, snooker player, 58; Brian Lara, ex-cricketer, 60; David Beckham, ex-footballer, 45.
I’M pleased to have sparked some debate about a universal basic income and welcome the responses from Alan Tait and ‘Sourpuss’ (Feedback,
April 28). There are some serious arguments against a Universal Basic Income, but in my view they’re now outweighed by the arguments in its favour.
The key issue is about UBI’s relationship to paid employment. Alan Tait argues that ‘Democracy relies on the assumption that we are producers of wealth and have a stake in our society.’ Similarly, it used to be argued that only owners of property had a ‘stake in society.’
The danger of linking social status to work is that it makes the millions of non-workers – students, trainees, carers, volunteers, pensioners – second class citizens. UBI would put all of us on an equal footing as citizens, and is sometimes called a citizens’ income for that reason.
Alan also suggests that UBI would make us all ‘mere dependants,’ while Sourpuss imagines that UBI would be ‘not much less than monthly pay.’ I made no assumption that a UBI would replicate incomes from work. The idea is to provide a basic platform of security from which people can build. It would reduce ‘dependance’ on means-tested benefits and zerohours contracts, strengthening workers’ bargaining power and opening up wider choices in life. It would make it easier for people to change jobs and retrain, as we face the massive changes in employment demanded by growing automation and the need to decarbonise the economy.
Of course cost is a key issue. A UBI scheme will need to start modestly and grow. Most children and pensioners already receive universal benefits. For the working-age population, the personal income tax allowance is an unconditional benefit for anybody earning enough to receive it, but is of no use to those on poverty pay or outside the labour market. Its conversion to a UBI could be a good place to start.
Lastly, Alan refers to the ‘unlikely alliance’ supporting UBI, from the Green Party to the free-market Adam Smith Institute. True enough: but 110 MPs and peers, from all the major political parties, have called for an emergency basic income in the current crisis. For a whole range of reasons, it is an idea whose time has come.