Act Now: A Social Safety Net

The government should introduce a basic income for all permanent UK residents, initially set at £75 per week for over 18s, with £50 for each child. This starter scheme requires only modest tax changes and no increase in government borrowing, yet it will have a dramatic effect on poverty and a host of other advantages. There is a strong argument for increasing the basic income over time, to the point where it becomes the main plank of our social safety net. Achieving this longer-term project will require larger changes to taxation, and we return to this below. The arguments for the starter scheme are compelling, and it can be introduced immediately, with a longer-term pathway providing us with the social security we need via more generous levels of basic income payments. This represents a sea change in the way we are protected from wholly avoidable risks and enables us to take the sort of action we need to take to rebuild our society.

In the book, this chapter lays out the case for a single keystone policy of basic income. The starter basic income scheme could be introduced immediately with only modest tax changes and no increase in government borrowing. In time, the basic income should be increased towards a full Minimum Income Standard.