Is CI a completely different system?
Yes, payment of most existing benefits depends on work status. Claimants must be out of work but available for work, or out of work and unable to work. Lower-paid families with children can claim Working Families Tax Credit. Otherwise, with the notable exceptions of old age pensions and Child Benefit, working and at the same time claiming any of the main benefits is a criminal offence. That means unemployed claimants cannot study, train or do voluntary work to any significant extent without jeopardising their benefits. This leads to situations where the unemployed find it difficult to find a job that pays as much as the State benefits PLUS income tax, National Insurance contributions, council tax, and travel expenses which the job entails. This is the unemployment trap. The Working Families Tax Credit improves the position for lower-paid families with children but replaces it with the poverty trap (see below). A Citizen’s Income tackles the unemployment trap by removing the link betwee
