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Resolution 2197 (2018)
The case for a basic citizenship income
1. Modern Europe has built impressive
prosperity through development centred on human needs and rights.
Its social model is now under strain following changes in economic
structures, the nature of work and demographic profiles, with poverty
and deepening inequalities increasingly undermining human dignity. European
States must shoulder their reform responsibilities so that present
and future generations can continue to enjoy decent living conditions
and adequate social protection. It is in this context that the case
for a basic income, or so-called citizenship income, has been put
forward in the public debate.
2. The Parliamentary Assembly considers that a decent standard
of living for all is a cornerstone of social justice and human dignity.
Whereas most European countries have put in place income support
mechanisms to guarantee a strict minimum for the needy, nearly all
of them have been asked to improve their systems in response to
criticism from the European Committee of Social Rights. The latter
has repeatedly highlighted faults in the de
facto commitment of States Parties to the European Social
Charter (ETS No. 35 and No. 163) to ensure a decent standard of
living for all sections of their population, including the most
vulnerable (such as children, young people and the elderly, the
unemployed and the working poor, disabled people and sick people).
3. Basic, or citizenship, income is a form of social security
that can provide each citizen with a regular sum of money to live
on: it is “paid by a political community to all its members on an
individual basis, without means test or work requirements” (Van
Parijs P. 2000). Defined as universal, individual, unconditional
and sufficient to ensure living in dignity and participation in
society, a basic income would relieve absolute poverty whilst removing
disincentives to work (as it is not withdrawn when the person earns
other revenue). Moreover, it would supplement earnings for those
engaged in non-standard forms of work and job-sharing, those who
are underemployed or those in unpaid work (such as caring for children
or elderly and sick people in one’s family).
4. The Assembly believes that introducing a basic income could
guarantee equal opportunities for all more effectively than the
existing patchwork of social benefits, services and programmes.
However, the Assembly is fully aware of the practical difficulties
of such a radical change in social policy. An in-depth debate is
necessary in each country to determine the modalities for such a
permanently guaranteed income and the ways of funding it as part
of a new social contract between citizens and the State.
5. As a matter of priority, the Assembly urges Council of Europe
member States to improve the adequacy of their existing minimum
income schemes and to ensure in particular that national reference
baskets of goods and services cover individuals’ full participation
in society. Where appropriate, countries could also consider adopting
the “at-risk-of poverty or social exclusion” indicator (AROPE) used
by the European Union institutions.
6. Considering that a possible introduction of a basic income
requires intermediary steps to make it affordable through bold revisions
in national social protection and taxation systems, the Assembly recommends
that the member States:
6.1. study
the past and present initiatives of field-testing different formulas
of basic income at local, regional or national level;
6.2. enhance support to vulnerable categories of the population
by:
6.2.1. proceeding with the consolidation of existing
income support schemes and a critical review of tax levels, breaks
and credits so as to identify positive transfers;
6.2.2. streamlining the existing social support systems in order
to remove inefficiencies, gaps and overlaps;
6.2.3. expanding efforts to curb tax evasion and avoidance by
multinational enterprises and wealthy individuals and reallocating
funds thus recuperated to social policy priorities;
6.3. where appropriate, re-examine their income support schemes
in the light of the conclusions of the European Committee of Social
Rights;
6.4. involve all social partners in the process of setting
a national benchmark on a minimum subsistence level that enables
every citizen to have an income above the poverty line;
6.5. carry out an impact assessment of national minimum income
schemes and consider further steps to improve them;
6.6. enhance the coverage and take-up of existing minimum income
schemes by:
6.6.1. ensuring that young people over the age
of 18 who seek to live on their own have access to minimum income
support;
6.6.2. reducing administrative hurdles and eliminating discrimination
and arbitrariness in granting income support on a national and local
scale;
6.6.3. regularly reviewing national minimum income schemes with
a view to making them more simple, cost-effective, transparent,
efficiently managed, and better co-ordinated with employment services
and integration agencies;
6.6.4. separating social work and the granting of income support
from control and oversight functions;
6.6.5. increasing flexibility and eliminating punitive conditionality
in examining requests for income support;
6.6.6. improving information systems on entitlements and expanding
field work for active outreach towards potential recipients of income
support among the most fragile categories of the population;
6.7. pursue social dialogue and explanatory work with the population
on the risks and opportunities inherent in the adoption of basic
income;
6.8. strengthen income support schemes and other measures of
active social inclusion, notably pro-employment policies and quality
public services;
6.9. stimulate a national public debate on a basic citizenship
income in order to lay the groundwork for and launch national experiments
on a basic income.