In 1984 the Basic Income Research Group, which later became the Citizen’s Income Trust, issued its first publication:
Scrap the earnings rules!
People who claim Supplementary Benefit can only earn up to £4 each week before they lose their benefit pound for pound. Claimants of unemployment benefit can earn up to £2 per day before their benefit starts to be withdrawn. Earnings rules are a disincentive to unemployed people edging their way back into employment. It often is not worth their while to take up part-time jobs in the few areas where they are available. A major advantage of a Basic Income [Citizen’s Income] scheme is that it would abolish all earnings rules. However much you earn, you keep your Basic Income. [note]Basic Income Research Group News Sheet, Autumn 1984[/note]
Readers will notice the similarity.
Will we still be writing the same thirty years from now?