Malcolm Torry states at the beginning of the book that its focus is on a single idea, ‘a Citizen's Income – an unconditional and non-withdrawable income paid to every individual as a right of citizenship’ (p. xxiii), and that this simple idea has the potential to change the nature of our economy and labour market, to foster entrepreneurialism and enterprise, to increase community cohesion, tackle poverty, reduce inequality (both income and gender-based), as well as freeing us all from the intrusion of an increasingly bureaucratic and stigmatising state.

The principles underpinning the idea of a basic, or in this case a Citizen's Income, are not new. Neither is the idea confined to the UK context, and recent years have seen a growing interest in a basic income across a range of countries facing very different economic and social challenges. Swiss citizens are to vote on a proposal for a guaranteed basic income of 2,500 Swiss francs each month for all legal residents. In the US, the idea has gathered interest from opposing ends of the political spectrum: commentators on the left argue its value in terms of redressing the power imbalance between employee (labour) and employer (capital), affording workers a stronger bargaining position (Wright, Reference Wright2006); on the right, the idea of a basic income is seen as a means of potentially dismantling the ever-more destructive welfare state, thereby reducing the state's unnecessary entanglement in people's lives (Murray, Reference Murray2008).

In his book, Torry treads a line between left and right providing an account of what he sees as being wrong with the current system of tax and benefits in the UK and how a Citizen's Income would address and solve the failings of the current model. The book examines how the UK system has arrived at where it is (Chapter 2) and how the current system fails to meet the criteria for a benefits system as set out by Torry here (Chapters 6–9). In between, the author tackles the key question of implementation (Chapter 4) before turning to look at examples of what are in effect very different systems and income transfer experiments in Alaska, Namibia, Iran and India (Chapter 5). Chapters 10–14 go some way to providing answers to selected key questions regarding the feasibility of a Citizen's Income: Would people work? What would it mean for poverty and inequality? Who should receive it? And where does a Citizen's Income fit in with prevailing political ideologies? The book concludes with a condensed look at the alternatives to a basic income (Chapter 15) and some key areas where a Citizen's Income would need to be supplemented by other benefits, adding back in a layer of complexity.

At a time when much effort is being devoted to rethinking the purpose and nature of the benefits system in the UK, the book does provide a challenge to the way things are. However, the scope and character of the book are clearly influenced by the central premise that a Citizen's Income is a ‘good idea’ (p. 63) and the argument throughout the book essentially rests on a firm belief in the strength of this idea. Flowing from the premise are the key assertions that a Citizen's Income would give dignity where there is currently stigma, simplicity where there is currently complexity, and freedom where there is currently constraint and control. Torry argues that, for example, the implementation of a guaranteed Citizen's Income would allow individuals the freedom to determine the role of work in their lives and to ‘create their own individual and community projects’ (p. 147), and that it would ‘enable people to choose their own preferred patterns of employment and leisure’ (p. 147).

Many of these outcomes would be welcomed across the political spectrum and few would take great issue with the prominent assertion here that the UK benefits system has become one that is complex both administratively and as it is experienced by claimants; the simplicity of a Citizen's Income as a foundational support for all is appealing, and an unconditional baseline may provide something that individuals could build upon, freed from state interference.

However, despite the potential strength of the idea, what is far less certain from reading this book is how such an idea would really work in practice, and how it could be introduced in the face of current fiscal and political realities – would the UK population, for example, readily accept the levels of redistribution necessary to make the Citizen's Income a reality? Furthermore, for all of its detailed argument the book does at times feel more like a manifesto for change than a balanced assessment of the strengths or otherwise of the idea: Torry ends the book by stating that ‘a Citizen's Income is no longer an issue for cranks and utopians … it is high time for a substantial pilot project, and, after that, implementation’ (p. 279). The fact that Torry arrives at this conclusion is, I feel, determined by the starting premise as much as by the evidence presented in support of the idea throughout the book – ‘we should give money to everyone: to every resident, unconditionally’ (p. xxiii).