Participation Income

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is on income support. A fundamental overhaul of existing welfare trajectories means shifting away from institutions and policies that ‘commodify’ labour and prioritise productivity growth and employment as the primary mechanism to social citizenship. Decommodification requires that policy and practice promote socially useful work and greater varieties of participation beyond the labour market that facilitate reciprocal interdependent care relationships throughout our life cycles. The income support system needs to complement principles of an enabling and facilitating welfare system that primarily works through UBS to meet collective needs. The first section of this chapter explores a spectrum of income support options including universal basic income (UBI), minimum income guarantees (MIG) and PI. The mid-section of the chapter offers PI as an example of a state income support system that de-emphasises production, consumption and employment, and enables and values other forms of work, while recovering time for activities that have social and ecological value such as providing care, democratic participation and sustaining the environment. The Irish case study offers a blueprint for income support reform towards a PI, building on the experience of pandemic income supports, and a subsequent artist basic income pilot in Ireland.