Basic Income and Caring: Why aren’t all caregivers interested in Basic Income?

1. Basic Income and Caring:Why aren’t all caregivers interested in Basic Income? Áine Uí Ghiollagain President FEFAF, European Federation of Unpaid Parent and Carer NGOs www.fefaf.be

2. About FEFAF • Federation of EU parent & carer NGOs + SPAF (Switzerland) • Cúram (Irish NGO) and 19 NGOs in 17 European countries • Founded in 1983 • Main focus: recognition for unpaid caregivers • Promote choice, positive outcomes

3. FEFAF networks

4. Financial benefit to support parents and carers Flexibility for caregivers Support for voluntary activity Anti-poverty measure without stigma Seen as ‘left-wing’ proposal Remove motivation for paid employment, especially for women caregivers Higher marginal tax rates (self-employed) Based on adults, not household Fall in labour supply, skills Case against Case in favour

5. Current situation of Caregivers • Work is unrecognised, unsupported • At higher risk of poverty than general population, especially as they age or in the case of divorce • Despite Beijing Platform for Action & human rights conventions, recognition and support has not been implemented • Low status of work, unconnected to outcomes

6. Women at risk of poverty The Life of Women and Men in Europe: a statistical portrait Theme: Population and social conditions Collection: Statistical books Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2008 http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1073,46587259&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&p_product_code=KS-80-07-135

7. Current Prevailing Attitudeswork := paid work Economically inactive persons are characterised by not having a job and either not actively looking for a job or not immediately available for a job. People outside the labour force: the downward trend continues Omar Hardarson (Eurostat) Statistics in focus POPULATION AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 122/2007 http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1073,46587259&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&p_product_code=KS-SF-07-122

8. Lisbon Agenda • 60% of women ‘active’ • childcare for at least 90% of children 3- school age and 33% of children 0-3 by 2010

9. Definition of ‘Active’ 1 hour per week in paid employment

10. Unpaid work 30%-50% of GDP

11. Time-Use Survey 2005 (Ireland) Information in table compiled from Tables B.1 and B.2, p. 37-38 TIME-USE IN IRELAND 2005: SURVEY REPORT F. MCGINNITY et al. ESRI: 2005 Available from www.esri.ie *PES: principal economic status

12. Annual Value of goods & services produced by unpaid caregiver €23,540.40 Professor Gabriel Kiely University College Dublin Family Studies Centre, 2004

13. Access to Carers’ support 24 hours per day 7 days a week 52 weeks a year AND if low household income, €214 per week

14. On balance, Caregivers would be better off under a system of Basic Income than the current system So what can be done by proponents of systems of Basic Income to turn this around?

15. Social Platform • Platform of EU federation NGOs in the social sphere, including EWL, ILGA Europe, EAPN, Eurochild, EURAG, Inclusion • Common positions including support for Basic Income and recognition for unpaid caregivers and volunteers www.socialplatform.org

16. Áine Uí GhiollagáinPresidentFEFAFEuropean Federation of Unpaid Parent and Carer NGOs 76, av. Père DamienB-1150 Bruxelles Belgiquetel./fax +32.2.771.23.34www.fefaf.bemehelleputte@skynet.be