Social Work, Human Services and Basic Income

Abstract

Economic inequality is increasing globally and in Australia. Social work and human services (SWHS) professions will be part of the response to the social consequences of this division. However, SWHS have always been contested professions, split between individualist and structural approaches to combatting the social harms of economic inequality. The recent renewal of “critical social work” raises the prospects for a more structural, reform-oriented response from SWHS practitioners to rising inequality. From a critical SWHS perspective, a basic income (BI) could provide a useful response to structural inequality, provided it is part of a redistributive policy suite and not simply a cost-saving replacement for other welfare measures. We argue, based on past and current examples, that critical SWHS could be supportive allies in campaigning for an equitable and adequate BI. This chapter highlights the potential contribution that critical SWHS workers could make in promoting the BI campaign through practitioner activism, professional advocacy and critical pedagogy.