IN THE RECENT Future Of Ireland survey, 48% of respondents were in favour of the payment of a basic income to all citizens.

A basic income is a regular payment from the state, granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement.

It is paid irrespective of any income from other sources and is given without requiring the performance of any work, paid or even unpaid, or the willingness to accept a job if offered. Ideally, it should be sufficient to support a frugal but decent lifestyle.

For people who are not employed, the basic income payment would replace most social welfare payments. For people who are employed, the basic income payment would replace most tax credits. The payment would also extend to those who currently receive no income from the state.

Social Justice Ireland  calculates that we can do this in Ireland, pegged to current social welfare rates:

• €188 to each person between 25 and 65
• €230 to each person over 65
• €100 to each person between 18 and 25
• Current child-benefit rates to under-18s.

Carer’s Allowance, Disability Allowance and other special-needs payments will still exist as means-tested top-ups to basic income.

A single tax of 45% on personal incomes (replacing current income tax, USC and employee PRSI), along with an employers’ solidarity payment (to replace current employer’s PRSI) would finance this proposal in a revenue-neutral fashion, that is, neither increasing nor reducing the government’s deficit.

Fianna Fáil’s Willie O’Dea speaking about the basic income concept to TheJournal.ie: 

Imagine if the government of the day decided to introduce basic income for all citizens and legal residents, starting on 1 January 2017.

That means that until 31 December 2016 taxes and benefits would be collected and paid under the old system and on 1 January 2017, taxes would be collected and basic income paid under the new system.

What would need to happen in the year leading up to 1 January 2017? 

It would be necessary for the government to put in place an education campaign similar to what we had for the euro changeover throughout 2001 and for introducing postcodes in 2015.

Everybody would then understand the ideas behind basic income including how it would be financed, and the advantages it would confer on society and economy.

In parallel, practical preparations for a changeover would take place, so that on 1 January 2017, PRSI and the current income tax system, as well as most discretionary tax reliefs, would cease to exist. They would be replaced with an employer’s solidarity payment and a 45% flat rate of income tax on all income over and above the basic income (which always remains tax-free).

To this end, the tax and welfare departments and systems in Ireland would need to be completely integrated and a capacity-building programme put in place for the relevant civil servants.

They are essential players in any system of state support and would need to thoroughly understand the practicalities and underlying principles of basic income, in order to implement the changeover and efficiently maintain ongoing administration.

All entitled residents would need to be registered for their basic income. Everybody would need a post office or bank account for direct weekly payment. Online and paper information about amounts paid to each category of recipient, and how it would be paid would have to be widely distributed. Some civil servants would need to be deployed to conduct local information meetings.

Key points about basic income

The day-to-day workings of basic income can be understood easily. Equally important in the education campaign would be the following key points about the principles underpinning the new system:

• Basic income is not free money but a rights-based floor of security for citizens and legal residents, which is under everything else in society and economy.
• Basic income is revenue-neutral and will not encroach on health, education or other capital spending.
• A single income-tax rate of 45%, combined with a tax-exempt basic income, is highly progressive.
• Universal payments are more efficient and fairer than means-tested payments. It makes more sense to reclaim basic income costs from rich people via taxation, rather than have an arbitrary cut-off point for the basic-income payment.

Unpaid work, which is supported by basic income, contributes hugely to economy and society. Basic income always provides a financial incentive for people to take up paid work.

At the same time, it gives people freedom to turn down exploitative, harmful, useless or dead-end jobs. Money introduced at the bottom of an economy is highly effective at driving economic activity. Many dynamic benefits can be expected with the introduction of a basic-income system.

Basic income can make a huge contribution to sustainable lifestyles, family farms, young people, entrepreneurs, self-employed people, small businesses, democratised workplaces such as coops and worker-owned businesses, to employees and employers and to carers of all kinds.

Anne B Ryan is a lecturer at the Department of Adult and Community Education, NUI Maynooth and a member of Basic Income Ireland.

Read: Willie O’Dea told us about his radical plan to abolish all social welfare

Read: What if we abolished welfare and gave everyone a basic income?