Even before cost of living crisis, the poor owed the government – or, the Crown – £16bn. Why not just write it off?
As the Queen’s Chaplain herself reminded us on Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ this week, the word ‘jubilee’ isn’t just another term for an anniversary, monarchical or otherwise, nor a byword for bunting. The biblical ‘jubilee’ was the blast of a trumpet, every 50 years, that heralded the write-off of everyone’s debts.
This “radical and counter-cultural” measure, the Venerable Liz Adekunle told listeners, brought “reconciliation” and a “clean slate”. She urged us to ensure “that amidst all the partying”, we “get a chance to remember the original meaning of jubilee”.
But what if we did more than just remember?
As American anthropologist David Graeber set out in his magisterial ‘Debt: The First 5000 Years’, most pre-capitalist societies practised periodic mass #debt write-offs, as a way of preventing a level of indebtedness and inequality that damaged society. ...
As Joe Cox, of Debt Justice (formerly the Jubilee Debt Campaign), told me: “Billionaires and businesses use insolvency and a variety of other practices to get huge amounts of debt written off, and it’s ordinary people who are the ones that believe and are told that they should pay their debts”. ...
Even before the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, much of the UK’s household debt was already simply unpayable, with more than 420,000 people in England considering suicide while in problem debt each year, and 100,000 actually attempting it.
The most distressing debts of all, according to Christians Against Poverty (CAP), are those owed to the government, for things like council tax arrears, benefit advances and sanctions and tax credit overpayments – many of them very old. The charity found 93% of its clients with these kinds of debts had sleepless nights, 74% were scared to open the door, and 49% were scared to leave the house. ...
The amount owed in such debts has climbed steadily in the decade since the financial crisis – reaching more than £16bn, according to a 2020 parliamentary report. More recent figures show there are £4.4bn of council tax arrears, £8.4bn of benefit ‘overpayments’, and £5.2bn of tax credit overpayments to be repaid.
Some might claim that returning £16bn or so to the pockets of the country’s poorest would only stoke inflation – but even the head of the Bank of England has acknowledged it’s soaring commodity prices and other supply shocks, not excess money, that are responsible for 80% of the UK’s inflation overshoot. ...
The residents of Warrington, Wigan, Swansea and Sunderland owe 20% of their average income in debts – three times more than the residents of wealthy cities like Oxford and Cambridge. Much of what is owed isn’t due to the policy of this government, but the tax credit debacles of previous ones. They could write it off and call it ‘levelling up’.
If we really want communities to come together and unite, we need to cancel the debts that weigh so heavily on the very poorest.
Now – wouldn’t that be a good excuse for a street party?
