Ideas 5...UK Welfare Benefits & Pensions

The experiences which I had, regarding my wife's benefits, led me to conclude that there has to be a better way of ensuring that everyone has social security upon which to fall back on. I later became aware of the basic income scheme proposed by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO).

In this scheme it is proposed that every person over secondary education leaving age should receive a basic income, whether they work or not. The level of basic income, which would be the same for everyone, would be decided by a voluntary grouping known as the Basic Income Research Group. This scheme would mean the abolition of state pensions, students allowances, unemployment and basic supplementary allowances, etc. Income tax allowances would be abolished. Unemployed people would be allowed to work part time without the loss of benefit. There would be no means test, and as everyone would receive the benefit there would be no stigma attached to it. Because the system is far simpler the administrative costs would be far less than the sixteen hundred million pounds it cost the UK government at this time (1987), not to mention the cost saving to the employer. This is also known as universal benefit, not HMG's present Universal Credit.

There are times when the welfare state proves inadequate, when unforeseen events scupper plans, such as deaths resulting in expensive funerals, or wars causing rises in energy and food prices. It is then necessary to search for charities and obscure government help schemes. Here are a few from my area of Birmingham UK and UK generally.

UK Pension details are as follows:

A higher rate of tax is the main disadvantage to the scheme, but then any truly caring society requires a higher level of taxation than that of a free for all capitalist one. Housing benefit, disablement allowance and exceptional needs allowance, etc., would have to be added to the basic income when required, although the amount would depend upon the threshold decided by the government and the Basic Income Research Group. This would pave the way for the abolition of the benefits sections of the DHSS and Department of Employment, a move long overdue in my opinion. Although parts of this scheme do not fit in with my own views, it is certainly better than the scheme introduced in April 1988 known as Income Support, designed to replace supplementary benefit. In the UK the DHSS has been replaced by the Department of Work & Pensions. It provides employment through Jobcentre+ and 'way to work' scheme, universal credit for the unemployed, and state pensions.

The greatest advantage of the NCVO scheme is that it paves the way towards the creation of a leisure orientated society. It also ensures that people who are not mentally capable of looking after their own financial affairs are not forgotten or abused by the state, the way my wife was.