Everyone should have the opportunity to be equally involved in society. Discrimination on the basis of age, such as the lower minimum wage bracket for 18 to 20 year olds and the bias against young people in the welfare system, is divisive and unhelpful. There should also be greater and more balanced parental leave to support those in the crucial first stages of starting a family. Helping people so that they can help themselves is the right thing to do, and much more cost effective than leaving them out.
In the UK we still face problems with discrimination on the basis of age, race, gender and sexual orientation either in law or in practice. It is time to change that. Equality is vital for a healthy society, and given that the tax system doesn't discriminate, social policy shouldn’t either. Simple but significant changes, like allowing equal LBGT marriage, are important and achievable.
Instead of writing people off, we need to think creatively and help people to find their own solutions. We should pilot a mentoring programme, matching young people not in education or employment with older people finding the next stage in their career, bridging the generation gap for mutual benefit.
Any new legislation or regulation should be for a good reason and based on sound evidence. Proposals like alcohol price hikes, which we oppose, don't even have the benefit of having a clear intent, or any evidence to show what they are likely to achieve. Instead they will restrict businesses and our leisure.
We must protect Sure Start services. It is vitally important that all children get the best possible start in life, but that alone isn't sufficient in dealing with the problems that the UK faces. The rationale under which Sure Start Children's Centres were set up should be extended, not rolled back. They have made life easier for millions of families and could improve lives further. Sure Start should be be about actively bringing down the levels of child poverty in the UK, not just a start in life, and should provide ongoing support for whole families.
The demand for certain skills that are in short supply in the UK has made immigration vitally important for both the public and the private sector. Well-managed and well-controlled immigration is important to ensure that the UK remains competitive and innovative. We will therefore ensure that immigration is well managed by ensuring that record keeping related to entry into and departure from the UK is suitable. Without detailed information about the flow of people into and out of the country it will become difficult to ensure that the areas where immigrants are settling are able to cope with both changes in the level of demand and changes in demographics.
Immigration applications should be considered not only on the basis of what skills an immigrant brings to his sponsor and whether an applicant is able to support themselves without any recourse to public funds, but also where the applicant is intending to live and work.
The current mechanism used to determine elegibility for the 'Employment and Support Allowance' is failing many people who are in dire need of support. We would call for an immediate review of the assessment methods used and look for alternative ways to administrate assessments.
We will promote the inclusion of accessibility features, such as subtitles and audio descriptions for the disabled. Our aim is to make content accessible for disabled people.
We will introduce an obligation for publishers to provide a DRM-free copy of their product where necessary to allow the use of accessibility programs (for example, voice synthesiser software to "read out" an e-book to a visually impaired person).
We will ensure that the minimum wage applies to interns gaining experience within for-profit companies to limit the impact of abuses of the intern system.
At present people under 25 receive a lower level of Job Seekers Allowance and people under 35 receive a lower level of housing benefit than older people. Both of these examples of age discrimination should be removed from the benefits system. Everyone who is no longer in full time education and has not yet reached retirement age should be treated equally.
We would aim to ensure that the minimum wage is sufficient incentive to work and allow autonomy without reliance on tax credits and low-income benefits, that requires that the minimum wage also be a living wage. At present the taxpayer subsidises employers by providing means tested benefits to working people on wages so low that they would not be able to survive if they did not have recourse to benefits.
Quite rightly, the UK is a party to international agreements pertaining to asylum. We have an obligation to provide sanctuary to those individuals who have been forced to flee their homes. We should ensure that those people who come to the UK seeking asylum are treated fairly and are given decisions quickly about their status. Once asylum seekers have been granted asylum they should be given assistance to ensure that their time in the UK is productive and beneficial to them and the UK, including access to employment and education.
The legalisation and regulation of activities around prostitution, especially brothels, would protect the workers and remove a significant revenue stream from criminals. If properly regulated, it would enable regular health checks to help stop spread of STDs and ensure better working conditions for those involved.
A Citizen's Income is an unconditional, non-withdrawable income payable to each individual as a right of citizenship.
The idea would be to introduce this income, reduce the amount at which people are taxed and remove some existing tax credits.
Instituting an automatic, non-repayable, non-means-tested and unconditional Citizens Income is a long term aim for the Pirate Party. Such a payment would replace all benefits and tax credits. However there are significant hurdles to the implementation of such a system, including the need for comprehensive research into the social and economic impact it would have and whether it can be affordable. We think it is likely that such a programme is possible but would have to be reached incrementally. As such we propose funding trials to establish how such a system could be implemented.
A Citizens Income would significantly reduce poverty and wealth inequality, and it would help ensure that nobody falls into a poverty or unemployment trap. Importantly, the incentive to work would remain, as getting a job would not remove the Citizens Income, but would raise the amount of money coming in to the household. It would also create flexibility for single parent families, carers, disabled people and people wanting to dedicate their time to community or volunteering programmes, as part-time jobs would become a viable means of support.
As a result, the minimum wage could probably be lowered, the tax code could be simplified and the poorest in society would be safe from a lifetime of poverty.
The Citizens Income would need to be funded through tax increases and would represent significant wealth redistribution, but it would also increase efficiency in supporting everyone and massively reduce the cost of administrating and monitoring benefits payments.
We would like to see trial programmes across the UK in which young people are paired with older people and provided with an opportunity to start a business with state support through the provision of space, legal advice and accountancy, preferably in a startup incubator-like space. This would give both young people the opportunity to start a business and work with people who have long term experience, and would support older people who want to start a business but don't have the up-to-date skills required. If a MMP business fails there would still be a measurable benefit from skill transference; if a MMP business succeeds then it would create jobs for all parties involved at the fraction of a cost of long term welfare, and potentially continue to grow.
The UK should introduce balanced and flexible parental leave, to be available to both partners. We would propose a system where both the mother and father of a child each have a minimum amount of time off 'banked', and then an additional allocation to be divided between them, obviously this includes LGBT people too.
All of the UK's citizens should have an equal right to marriage. The implementation of truly equal marriage must not be further delayed or de-prioritised. Equal marriage must mean exactly that. The law must be changed to give full equality to all couples regardless of gender.