The pandemic experience with the CERB benefit proved that a Guaranteed Livable Income is both possible and can be implemented quickly. We know from previous pilots that such programs improve both physical and mental health, improve educational outcomes, reduce crime and don’t create work disincentives. We also know from research on poverty, that as incomes dip below 90% of the poverty line the impacts of deeper and deeper poverty have huge negative impacts on the health of those affected.
We need to replace it with a livable income set at 90% of the poverty line and creating an 18 month window between July 2022 and December 2023, to plan and implement the transition. While there are many challenges in implementing such a program, 18 months is a sufficient timeline for doing so. This initiative would occur in parallel with the commitment to full employment and a community job guarantee fund.
This transition would involve the elimination of the punitive system of social assistance that is rooted in nineteenth century attitudes to the poor and destitute that have no place in a society based on human progress, reducing health inequalities and democratic values. It would unbundle income support from attachment to the workforce, and be designed to ensure that existing social insurance programs are retained and strengthened, and other programs to meet differentiated needs based on disability, accommodation, and settlement of immigrants are not lost within bureaucracies focused on exclusion and punishing the poor. More detailed discussion is available here, and here.
Ask your candidates what they will do to:
- End our brutal and punishing Social Assistance system that forces nearly a million people to live lives of misery
- Support an 18 month transition to a Livable Income equal to at least 90% of the poverty line by Jan 2024
- Support a parallel Work Transitions program including a Job Guarantee, skills training, and a Green Jobs Corps
- Fund it by targeting tax avoidance, a wealth tax, and tax fairness measures aimed at large corporations, banks, and the top 30% of tax filers
- Strengthen social protections related to workers, renters and consumers, including outlawing predatory lending
A poster and questions for candidates can be found here.
