ABSTRACT
The first and overriding precondition for successful reform of social security is to lift the lower paid, and people on small incomes generally, out of liability to tax. Before Balance Income (BI) can become politically feasible, attitudes will have to change. The speed with which an unconditional partial BI can become politically acceptable depends very much on government. Full integration is neither feasible nor desirable, and a negative income tax is not integration at all, it is much more like an uncontrollable extension of the existing system. If integration is to function smoothly the BI has to be unconditional, otherwise the new system becomes as inoperable as the old. The advantage of an unconditional partial BI, with perhaps a work test and work guarantee linked to housing benefit at local level, is that the scale of the latter would be comparatively small, and more easily containable.
