Research note: a feasible way to implement a Citizen’s Income

Publication type

EUROMOD Working Paper Series

Series Number

EM17/14

Series

EUROMOD Working Paper Series

Author

Publication date

September 18, 2014

Abstract:

Citizen’s Income – an unconditional and nonwithdrawable income for every individual – would offer many advantages, but transition from the UK’s current largely means-tested benefits system to one based on a Citizen’s Income might generate initial losses for some low-income households, and this could make a Citizen’s Income politically unattractive. This paper employs EUROMOD to study the initial losses that a variety of different Citizen’s Income schemes would generate, and finds that in those schemes in which a Citizen’s Income replaces most means-tested benefits, substantial household losses would occur, both generally and for households in the lowest disposable income decile, whereas where means-tested benefits are not abolished, but instead the Citizen’s Income reduces means-tested benefits in the same way that other existing income does, almost no households in the lowest disposable income decile suffer initial losses, and initial losses generally are at a manageable level. This means that there is at least one method for implementing a Citizen’s Income that could be politically attractive.

Subjects

Paper download  

#522693

---

Related Publications

• Two feasible ways to implement a revenue neutral Citizen’s Income scheme

  1. Malcolm Torry

  EUROMOD Working Paper Series
  April 23, 2015