Posted: Mon 9th Aug 2021

Call for Wrexham to be universal basic income pilot area

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Monday, Aug 9th, 2021

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, along with a call for Wrexham to be a pilot area.

UBI 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.

A universal basic income (UBI) is an unconditional payment where a government pays every individual a set salary, regardless of their means. Payments are made automatically, without procedures like queuing and regular form-filling.

Earlier this year, following a Wales-wide movement, Mr Drakeford announced he would pilot a basic income. Welsh Government later said it was interested in developing a small pilot, potentially involving people leaving care.

Yet signatories of the open letter say that while care leavers need more support, 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 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.

In June, a new report by Public Health Wales said introducing a basic income could mean better health and well-being for everyone in Wales.

Sophie Howe, the Future Generations Commissioner, 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.

Lani Driver (pictured above) lives in Holt and works full-time in a job she’s not sure will exist in the future.

The 24-year-old, who learned about UBI while studying for a Masters Degree in Social Policy at Cardiff University, is currently commuting for two hours a day to an administrator job in St Asaph.

Yet she says she would love the time to focus on building a business she’s passionate about – when she finishes work every day, she bakes brownies and cakes for the small bakery business she runs from her parents’ kitchen, “I don’t particularly enjoy my day job and after that, there isn’t much time left to do anything else,” said Lani, who is co-founder of UBILabWrexham.

“I’d love to be able to develop the business. It’s what I love. But I don’t have the means or the time to do it. I know so many people with a passion but they’re stressed out about money and can’t afford to do what they need to build a business. UBI would take away a lot of that stress.

“Society is changing. There are a lot of jobs in manufacturing around here that are changing already – it’s easy to think that it’s all about robots, but a lot of it is just software – for example my job in sales, I think that very soon software will do that – and my job won’t exist. What will happen then?”

Lani thinks the benefits of a UBI to the area could be huge, “I went to school in Rhyl and I knew a lot of people who were struggling. Much of the work up here is very seasonal, and people struggle for regular income. Growing up that way has an impact, it stays with you, even once you get to the point you have enough money as an adult.

“If you experienced that uncertainty growing up, the anxiety you might find yourself back in that situation stays with you”

Lani’s parents lost their business in the financial crash of 2008 and she’s since reflected on how having a basic income would have made a difference, “I’d love to see the Government pilot a UBI in Wales so that everyone in a town or area receives it, whatever their age and circumstances.

“I think we need to ask ourselves what sort of society we want. I know a lot of people with kids for example who are working all hours when they’d rather be spending time with their family – I’d love to see more people being able to do that.”

Jonathan Williams, founder, UBI Lab Cymru, said: “It’s of great importance that we get this pilot design right. If we’re to truly understand what impact the policy could have on society, we must include all demographics. The results of a wide-ranging pilot could be a gamechanger in terms of bringing on board people who are still unconvinced about the merits of a basic income for all.

“The Welsh Government have taken a huge step in the right direction by being brave enough to announce they will run a trial. Now they must make the case to the UK Government that a substantive pilot is what the Welsh public want.”

You can follow @UBILabWrexham here on twitter, who are advocating a Basic Income pilot in Wrexham.



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