A ‘Citizen Income’
Quakers soon to be asked to support a 'Citizen's Income'
Quakers from across Britain will soon be asked to consider supporting a ‘Citizen’s Income’. Friends in South East Scotland have resolved to raise the issue with Meeting for Sufferings, the national committee of British Quakers.
A Citizen’s Income scheme would mean that the government allocates a guaranteed sum of money to every citizen. Wages would continue to be paid on top of this, but many benefits would be unnecessary. Its supporters insist that their calculations show it to be both affordable and realistic.
South East Scotland Area Meeting last month minuted their concern for a Citizen’s Income. Their minute declares: ‘A Citizen’s Income could redistribute income from rich to poor and geographically, thereby enabling regeneration of poorer local economies and boosting growth’.
The minute followed a discussion with Annie Miller of the Citizen’s Income Trust. Annie is a Quaker who has worked for a Citizen’s Income since the 1970s. She said that three and a half decades of economic growth have benefited the richest forty per cent of the population, with many of the poorest becoming poorer.
The Trust maintains that a flat rate of income tax at around forty-two per cent could pay for the scheme. For some on middle incomes, the high tax rate would to some extent cancel out the extra income. Those at the top of the scale would end up with less money, while the poorest would gain.
Friends in South East Scotland accepted that ‘we also need to talk to those whom we would not expect to agree with such an initiative’. The possibilities they suggested include a training weekend at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.
Quakers are not the only religious group to be considering the idea. The Conference of Religious of Ireland has supported a Citizen’s Income since 2002.
Scottish Friends suggested that the scheme would boost growth. Other supporters of a Citizen’s Income have argued that it would make the economy less dependent on growth. This is the position of the Green Party of England and Wales. They support both a Citizen’s Income and a zero-growth economy.
According to the Green Party, the Citizens’ Income will ‘eliminate the unemployment and poverty traps, as well as acting as a safety net to enable people to choose their own types and patterns of work’. They believe it will help to move from a welfare state to a welfare community, in which people engage in ‘personally satisfying and socially useful work’.
You need to login to read subscriber-only content and/or comment on articles.