The Wales Green Party is committed to introducing a Citizen's Income for every man, woman and child in the country by 2020. Is it affordable? The price tag at current rates is £272 billion.
"What's unique about the Citizens Income. is that it attacks poverty and inequality like nothing else on offer from the other parties" says Pippa Bartolotti, leader of Wales Green Party.
"What's more it gets rid of the benefit trap, provides a safety net and encourages work and study in a way the current system clearly fails to do. The nature of work available is also changing, and labour is becoming just another commodity, the value the working person brings to the job is lost. Labour is not a commodity. It is not a consumer. It is a human being."
"Wales has been in austerity for too long. The people have been neglected and allowed to languish in poverty and joblessness. We need a Citizens Income." Bartolotti continued. "We need to give people the right to work, the right to do well, and above all we need to provide a non-means tested safety net from where they can plan their life – and take a few risks - without interference from the state."
That's why Greens favour the Citizens Income. Everyone deserves the chance to work, everyone deserves the right to minimal security. The Citizens Income would be the biggest shake up since the welfare state.
Tax exempt and payable to everyone, even the better off, how can it make sense?
Just think for a minute if everyone could choose the job they did, could wait for something nearer to home, or a job, which actually matched their skills and experience. Mothers and fathers could choose to stay at home and bring up their children.
The Citizens Income is freedom and it is responsibility. There could be no fraud, and no one would get rich on it, but society would find a new balance, which doesn't punish the poor. Zero hours contracts could actually become desirable!
Few doubt that it can reduce fraud and administrative costs while ridding us of the current benefit maze. Some informed estimates say the cost would be no more than the current benefit payments and tax reliefs it would replace.
"We are promoting a debate about C.I. because it is an idea that can really make a difference in favour of equality and opportunity in our country. The Green Party is offering a radical choice to improve lives" concluded Bartolotti.