eight - Options for implementation

Summary

We have already begun our discussion of implementation by recognising in the last chapter that it might be preferable to implement Citizen's Basic Income one demographic group at a time, starting with the groups that the public might regard as more ‘deserving’, so that each age group's roll-out can pass the behavioural feasibility test and therefore build the psychological feasibility required for subsequent roll-outs.

This chapter studies four different implementation methods discussed in a report prepared for the Institute for Chartered Accountants for England and Wales and explored during a consultation organised by the Institute. The implementation methods will be studied in turn.

Four implementation methods

All in one go, and abolishes means-tested benefits

A Citizen's Basic Income for every UK citizen, large enough to take every household off means-tested benefits (including Working Tax Credits, Child Tax Credits, and Universal Credit), and large enough to ensure that no household with low earned income would suffer a financial loss at the point of implementation. This scheme would be implemented all in one go.

This option would require levels of Citizen's Basic Income high enough to ensure that no household would be worse off following the implementation of the Citizen's Basic Income and the abolition of the relevant means-tested benefits. It would not be possible for such a scheme to be revenue neutral without infeasible increases in Income Tax rates, which suggests that the scheme would not be financially feasible. If it could be funded, then the advantages of the scheme would be the abolition of the main means-tested benefits (although Housing Benefit might need to be retained in areas of high housing costs); if the scheme could be funded from outside the current tax and benefits system, so that no increase in Income Tax rates would be required, then most households would experience a substantial cut in their marginal deduction rates; the scheme would release most households from the stigma, bureaucratic intrusion, errors and sanctions that accompany means-tested benefits; the large Citizen's Basic Income would offer considerable personal freedom, and would provide lots of opportunity to start new businesses, do voluntary work, or care for relatives and neighbours; and the scheme would redistribute from rich to poor.