Support for universal basic income payment
WALES should explore paying everyone a basic income to study how it could improve lives for generations in the future, the First Minister is being urged.
Earlier this year Mark Drakeford announced he would pilot a basic income, with the Welsh Government saying it was looking at developing a small pilot, potentially involving people leaving care.
Known as universal basic income (UBI), the idea is that the government provides everyone with a minimum living wage.
This would be enough so that every person would be able to pay for all basic essentials, regardless of whether they have another form of income.
Advocates including the Future Generations Commissioner Sophie Howe, UBI Lab Cymru, Women’s Equality Network (WEN) Wales, and Chwarae Teg have written to Mark Drakeford asking him to expand plans for testing the benefits of supporting people with enough money for their basic needs.
They say they are concerned that confining the pilot in this way won’t provide the evidence needed to understand the impacts of a basic income for all.
Instead, they want the Welsh Government to run a wide-ranging ‘Care Leavers Plus’ pilot, to include children, the employed, the unemployed and pensioners, as well as care leavers.
They claim a wider pilot could collect evidence on how the policy would impact Wales as a whole, by testing the effect on educational attainment, for example. Wales has the highest rate of child poverty in the UK.
In a separate move, independent think tank Autonomy has set out a plan for a UBI pilot in Wales which could see 5,000 residents taking part in a 24-month trial.
Phillip Easton, from Penrhiwceiber, near Mountain Ash, said UBI would be “life-changing” for people in his area.
During lockdowns, the 41-yearold’s business, Pip’s Real Hot Chocolate, could no longer supply to events or cafés and Phillip, who didn’t qualify for Universal Credit, struggled to pay his mortgage and for food.
Mr Easton suffered a stroke six years ago which left him with a brain injury, meaning he finds paperwork difficult, and says an automatic, guaranteed payment would make a huge difference during economic uncertainty.
“Because the funding changes, you don’t know if you’re going to get support,” said Phillip.
“It’s hard to plan and that uncertainty puts a pressure on your mental health. It’s a very testing time. ”
Mr Easton added: “If my area was chosen for the pilot, then those children who live in the worst poverty in Wales would have money in their families that they never dreamed of.”
A poll on behalf of the Future Generations Commissioner found 69% of people in Wales think we should trial a basic income and 25 Members of the Senedd have signed UBI Lab Wales’ Pledge for UBI.
Ms Howe said furlough ending this September, along with an end to the Universal Credit pandemic top-up of £20 a week, were yet more signs that the current systems of welfare and work aren’t fit for purpose.
She said: “It’s time to accept the system is broken and without a stronger safety net generations to come will be left with a legacy of deprivation.
“UBI could protect not just those hit hard by Covid but every one of us from other shocks to come – like the climate emergency that’s going to cause more devastation via extreme weather like heatwaves and floods.
“Keeping people well means doing new things to tackle poverty, and the Welsh Government has to take this chance now to use the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act to properly test how a UBI can change lives.”