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?
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..
Antiwoke It wouldn't last long though the whole economy would collapse. It's one of those ideas that has no connection to reality. If you are a very rich country its possible but not for 99.9% of the world population.
Why don't the countries of Africa give £1600 a month to each of their citizens so they don't starve to death and have to live in basic improvised buildings? Well the answer is of course they don't have that money and if they just printed it anyway that £1600 would end having the spending power of a few pence with runaway inflation.
If we want to live better lives we get the economy right and earn wealth which means we can live better lives. There is no other realistic option.
BonzoBanana that was my point, it's a pipe dream only supported by those who don't work. but expect others to work to pay for them.
Antiwoke I don't think its just about people who don't work a huge number of people just expect to have a great living standard and there are many well paid people who are idealistic and don't have realistic views of the economy. It's more of a political view I would say.
BonzoBanana people who don't work think this would be great, but why would workers on low pay think this is good, even if they got topped up to the £1600, it would mean they would be working for the same as others get for nothing. as for the well paid idealistic, i can't see those supporting when their taxes go up to support this madness. thats what i disagree with.
yes there are some rich dogooders but when they start having to pay more and cut back it will soon change.
I don't know much about this topic but it's just a trial probably won't even come in
I’m for it. And just one thing to add for those saying where’s the money coming from etc who’s gonna pay for it. It would cut out the cost of the current benefits system and the whole business of assessing people etc. It would also probably have a lot of other knock on effects that would reduce costs in other areas - eg could reduce homelessness (which costs money). It would be beneficial for a lot of people. Shouldn’t people want everyone to not have to live in poverty, or fear that they can’t afford to live, feed their kids etc. We shouldn’t need to live in a world where if you have a full time job (minimum wage or not) you still worry if you can afford to live, this could change that.
Antiwoke some people would choose to still work on top of the UBI, to top up their income. I’m not saying there wouldn’t be a lack of interest in such jobs, but a lot of people would still wish to work to earn extra money, along with other reasons that people work (to socialise, to be busy, etc) and so people would still work as cashiers, cleaners, carers etc. And if you’re thinking why would they do these jobs instead of others? Well plenty of people work in these jobs now, although there are others out there. It may be that they choose to work in these jobs due to interest, or because they don’t want other jobs that are in different areas, or perhaps other jobs aren’t accessible to them. So it’s not as clear cut as a UBI would leave no one working in the jobs you mentioned.
This isn't something that can be answered simply with a "Yes" or "No."
Everyone's favorite the WEF posted an article about UBI how it's for our own good or else this is what happens:
"The alternative to not having UBI is worse – the rising likelihood of social unrest, conflict, unmanageable mass migration and the proliferation of extremist groups that capitalize and ferment on social disappointment. It is against this background that we seriously need to consider implementing a well-designed UBI, so shocks may hit, but they won’t destroy."
www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/covid-19-universal-basic-income-social-inequality/
What the... 
I'm surprised CBDC isn't in the article somewhere.
PhilipMarc I'm pretty sure any country implementing a universal basic income would have an influx of immigrants coming in to enjoy that universal basic income. There is zero possibility of such an income being implemented in a poor country.
People have to stop pretending there is some magical pot of money that means all of us can live wonderful lives. It's just a ridiculous viewpoint.
All solutions to improve our lives have to be financially viable.
BonzoBanana there is already a welfare system, a UBI is an alternative to that. And one that could be more financially viable. Also, I would expect that any country that implements a UBI would set out requirements for receiving this, so it’s not as simple as lots of people would move to that country for it.
lornaae Surely Universal Basic Income means everyone gets it, that is the point. Once a person is accepted into the country they would get it. We are so far away from being able to do this with horrific debts that we haven't even started paying yet that it's so unrealistic its unbelievable. We are likely to have a huge fall in our living standards over the next few years with a higher percentage of people enduring real poverty. So the whole debate seems madness. There is approaching £100k of national debt for every single working person which has to be serviced with interest payments even if you can't pay off the debt itself. People can see how the NHS, police and other services are being cut back in order to create more money to service these debts and we have a population that are on economic self-destruct.
Just being able to feed your family well and heat your house during the winter will be aspirational goals the way its going which most people won't achieve.
Every individual no exception should be given £30 a week for life from the government. Those that don't want it can donate to charity. I'm sick of having to live off a partners wage or couples pretending to live apart so that 1 member of a couple can claim benefits. Why do I have to ask a partner for cash if I'm unemployed or not well ( after using up 6 months of benefit payments I got only if I have paid enough ni contributions) what if I am a carer but only for 25 hours a week, but I'm travelling back and forth so it takes up all my time, I get nothing to live on whether I'm single or in a couple? What if I look after someone 40 or 50 hours a week but they can't get the right benefit to lete get carers allowance, again I live on nothing ! Let wages continue on top of a universal income for all.
Michelle000 What if that UBI would be available through CBDC and you'd only be able to spend on specific stuff they'd allow? Think of grocery store vouchers.
Bank of England said so and CBDC is intended to be programmed (= controlled).
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