Dr Stuart White discusses welfare on the Moral Maze

Stuart White appeared on The Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4(13 March) in a programme discussing a recent attack on the governments welfare plans by Anglican bishops, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Stuart was initially asked by Michael Buerk if he believed that everyone should be 'economically equal' no matter what they did. Stuart argued that the moral presumption should be for equality in income and wealth, but that this presumption can be defeated by sufficiently strong moral considerations. The point is that the burden of justification lies on those seeking to move away from equality - not those seeking to justify moves away from the market-based distribution. He then added that he had concerns over whether welfare provided by governments should be conditional.

Michael Portillo then asked Stuart on how welfare should be provided, raising the point that if everyone was able to take the option of welfare and not work then the government would not have enough money to pay for welfare.

Stuart said, "I’m not necessarily arguing straightforwardly for an unconditional income set at a level to make basic needs. What I do want to do is to say there are ethical costs to conditionality."

The full programme can be heard here. (Stuart appears approximately 21 minutes in.)