Would You Support a Universal Basic Income?
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Would you support a Universal Basic Income?
Some people are going to be trialling doing this and if it does well, it could be introduced for a lot more! What are your thoughts on everyone getting £1,600 a month regardless of job etc?
I think the minimum hourly pay is the best. Do you think a doctor, nurse or teacher let alone railway workers would ever accept that.
Pjran rhey don't have to accept it.they do whatever they already do.its not being forced onto them
I think you are right in thinking a minimum hourly rate is a good solution but think essential service providers such as Doctor's Nurses, Teachers Police, Fire and Ambulance services should stand alone.
I also think skilled jobs should have some form of protection against being on minimum wage - workers should be rewarded for qualifications and experience alike.
What went wrong with minimum wage is that wage earners originally on more than minimum wage have paid the brunt and now are close to minimum wage; effectively there pay has stagnated since the introduction of NMW.
The very idea of NMW has become lost.
However, if workers were actually paid a decent wage, there would be no need for benefit top ups such as Universal Credit!
It's soul destroying workers have to rely on Benefit top ups to exist!
It makes a total mockery of NMW.
Imagine the savings to tax payers if a 'liveable' wage were to be paid - the Benefits department would shrink dramatically if this were the case.
It's a lovely idea but how would they ever fund it? The country doesn't have enough money as it is. I also don't understand why someone like a senior doctor for example, would need a basic income considering how much they earn.
Midnightflower rhe country(if you mean the UK as a whole)has plenty of money. The Tories would have you believe otherwise.if they stopped stealing and giving billions of it away to their crooked pals we would have even more
Powerpopjimmyd We don't have plenty of money we have been running a large trading deficit for decades. While some people may have money in the country the overall situation is dire. This nonsense keeps coming up and is completely unrealistic. There is approaching £100K of government debt for every single working person in this country. The price of a small flat I guess as an average. We have to stop pretending we are a rich nation. You only have to look in the shops to see how few products are British made nowadays and so many firms are now foreign owned. We can't keep pretending we are rich. Some people quote GDP but that GDP is falsely inflated by borrowing and when we start actively paying back that debt GDP will fall massively.
You need to look at the level of overall debt in the UK and the net international investment position. Both show the UK in a dire situation.
We are heading for a huge financial crunch and may need an IMF bailout at some point. We are pretty much a bankrupt nation.
We can't just keep lying to ourselves about our wealth. Rich countries don't have trillions in debt and negative equity.
We have become an economically moronic country with most people having little understanding of the economy.
BonzoBanana you are talking about England. English politicians and government. Thats who have caused the current situation. Whilst lining their own pockets and their cronies. Corruption ,greed and theft. There IS plenty of money.when it isn't being stolen
Powerpopjimmyd Why do you think there is plenty of money? We have huge crippling debts, are running a huge trade deficit and most industry is gone. 'Austerity' is just a different way of saying 'Poverty'. Why do you think there is plenty of money? GDP is not real money it can be falsely inflated with borrowing and the fact house prices are so high doesn't mean we have money to spend. If the economy collapsed so would house prices and our assets would be severely depleted. A country with a healthy trading surplus and no debts is a rich country which we aren't. I don't understand why people keep saying we are rich. We have only just surpassed a debt to yearly GDP ratio for the first time in about 62 years that is significant and shows we are getting poorer and poorer. I wish it wasn't true but that is the sad reality of this country and many other European countries.
People seem to be misunderstanding the premise. This means that everyone has a minimum income of whatever the amount is, people who already earn in excess of the minimum are not eligible. We aren't talking about reducing people's salary, people on £2k a month aren't going to stop earning that.
This follows the Swiss method. Everyone gets the minimum wage which is about £2k a month. However there is no welfare state. No free prescriptions or NHS no sick.lY or unempyment. You pay for everything . Either directly or by health/ welfare insurance. Pensioners are entitled to their private / works pensionn but no extra state pension.
There are no Housing benefits so the market tends to rule and rental at least is not open to huge hikes apart from.in the big cities or possibly some tourist towns.
NigelPrice Switzerland is a rich country and therefore that sounds possible for them and maybe Norway but that £2k would be far, far lower in most countries. High cost items like major operations etc would be unavailable to many Swiss people surely unless they have decent health insurance options. In the US 10s of millions don't have health insurance and in fact if they are in an accident and wake up in an ambulance they literally run away to avoid huge bills. It's pretty horrific. I am totally against private healthcare as the only option. I feel everyone should have the right to decent health care, justice and education as the highest priorities. I certainly wouldn't want to adopt the Swiss system although can see merit in some of it.
AngelaFitzgeral but it won't end poverty will it. Just think how much worse it will be for kids living in a household where the parents are addicted to drugs or alcohol. They will spend it on more drugs and alcohol and whilst mum/dad was only high/drunk 3/4 days a week they will now be off their heads every day of the week.
AngelaFitzgeral absolute bollocks.Why would anyone want to get out their bed to work then?
such ignorance)Powerpopjimmyd...why ignorance? Hit me with the facts then......£1600 is literally a few pounds less than I get a month for working a 38hr week so why should folk that sit in the house get the same??
AllanBooth or you could stop work and get the same as them, which i plan to do. why would anyone earning less than or about £1600 want to work 40 hours a week for the same amount..
AllanBooth Google it Allan. Its not difficult to find mate. Or just look at comments on this thread. It's 100% workable
I would support this but people who work who are on a low wage should be entitled to it as a top up. You will then see all the people who say that they can't work miraculously recover and can work.
Omg what a miserable, negative set of people you are. Not everyone is an addict!
AngelaFitzgeral I get your drift, but in the real world not everyone isn't
I work with kids in care and most are there due to their alcoholic, drug addicted, feckless, neglectful, abusive parents.
As a single person working around 20-28hrs a week, with one child, my approx total yearly take home is £19500. This is made up of my wage, Universal Credit & child benefit. It gives me a monthly income of approx £1600.
I run a car, we don't have sky/Virgin/BT TV or expensive mobile bills etc, & the 2 cats we have are probably one of the biggest expenditures we have between their food, insurance & vet club. We currently don't have to pay for prescriptions, dentist etc & my council tax has the single person discount.
At the moment I personally find it a manageable amount of money to live on, being that we don't have to add up our food shopping as we go along (although I don't tend to stray from my list too much) & can afford the occasional treat such as a take away perhaps monthly.
However, it's all good to say 'let's give everyone a basic income', but I feel other factors really do need to be taken into consideration, such as multiple children, health needs etc.
I feel the current Universal Credit system suits many peoples circumstances (if you can get past the initial wait for it to start without borrowing), but there are also many that potentially struggle with it. For them, a universal basic income may be very beneficial compared to the Universal Credit system.
*sorry for the essay 
anna070605 why would you work, if you get the same for doing nothing. again these ideas only benefit the lazy, who don't want to work.
Antiwoke Currently, I wouldn't get the same for doing nothing.
Personally, I currently work for the sake of my mental health. The reason it's only part time is so I could look after my son when he isn't at school & also I have problems with my feet (I don't claim any extra benefits for that) so doing the job I do full time wouldn't be possible for me.
However, I do hear you when you say 'why would you work if you get the same for doing nothing', I suppose in some cases it could potentially fuel the issue of allowing people who have the capability to work to choose not to do so.
I haven't looked into the Universal Basic Income scheme. Maybe there are some restrictions such as having to work a minimum amount of hrs to qualify for it?? If my calculations are correct £1600 p/m is approximately 35.5hrs p/wk at minimum wage of 10.42 without tax or NI.
anna070605 there’s no amount of hours you have to work for it and you don’t have to prove you are looking for work either, you are right about the hours and having to work that many hours, but you would need to earn around 2k a month to come out with £1600 take home.
Luckily it’s only a trial with 30 people for a year or two.
i am a pensioner due to ill health and i get nothing from the state so between my £502 and my wife's £350 a month we are scrapping through will not be eligible for state pension until 2028 and i only took my works pension because my health no longer allows me to continue as a postman
and at 62yrs getting another job is not advised. this new scheme that the government want to try i think would be a great idea if the dwp hire ups don't keep shifting the goal posts and changing the rules as they due at the moment .the one good thing it should only need a single form and if you dont have a national insurance card then you would not be entitled and it should cut the fraudulent claims right down
Yes and save the expense of administration, Then tax from that point and make all transactions digital.
Tax payers money comes to mind being wasted as per usual. A load of rubbish and it won't work.
Absolutely not, It's all about control. I am not willing to try and explain, however, I urge people to look into Agenda 2030, and the World Economic Forum. As crazy as it sounds, do not except UBI, it's not what you think it is. It's up to everyone to believe what you want, we all have freewill. I don't want money for nothing, there is always a catch. Nothing in life is free.
I am for and against… It would be nice to all be the same and everyone have the same. But then people would opt for the easiest jobs rather than the harder ones
SaveMeSunday you have missed the point, people who work can earn any amount as they do now, the £1600 is the minimum a person will get if they are not working. people who work full time now and don't earn that may as well quit and sit around and gey the £1600 hand out.
I’ve read into this sort of thing before, in principle they say it should work but in practice how would they get anyone to work.
people on minimum wage would just stop working why work for the same as someone who sit's around getting the same money. the only way, would be to pay workers more and that would mean the £1600 would be worth less and it starts all over again.
if they bring this in, i would be happy to sit around and get £1600 for doing nothing..
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