How Green Wage Subsidy/Basic Income can help us out of the Covid quagmire

House of Commons

London SW1A 0AA

Dear 

I hope you and your family are safe and well.

The Covid-19 pandemic is bringing on a recession.
Green Wage Subsidy is a way of countering unemployment caused by the recession simply and directly.

We need a universal safety net, and at the same time we need to remove all administrative blocks to people moving in and out of necessary work. We need to abolish the withdrawal of benefit that happens at the point when a claimant finds work in vital sections of the economy which are set out below. The new employer simply brings people in from the Job Centre, and on top of the benefit they receive, the new employee brings the wage up to the going rate for the job. The Job Centre simply notes on the record that the person has obtained work under the WSS.

At this point in time, the ability to hire workers easily, and at a low rate of pay, will be most welcome for the all employers, who are facing unprecedented cash flow problems.

The economically active groups who should benefit from WSS at present are:

1.      NHS

2.      Agriculture, particularly since there is expected to be a lack of seasonal pickers

3.      Education and schools

4.      Water supply

5.      Sewage services

6.      Power services

7.      Builders for vital work such as roof leaks

8.      Waste collection services and other departments in NSC

I do hope that you will agree that in the present situation, the removal of all the bureaucratic complexities arising out of moving from benefits to work is a perfect solution to what is otherwise a very major economic problem. I appreciate that the Treasury has already done a lot to meet the problem, but there is more that needs to be done. The beauty is that WSS does not need new money: benefit that is at present paid on condition that the recipient does no work, is still paid, but is now a subsidy to the vital, life preserving sections of the economy.

I look forward to hearing how you think we can take this forward.

Kind regards

 Richard

[this post had been amended 6/6/2020]