Wales Green Party has been campaigning for Universal Basic Income, and now the Welsh Government has proposed a trial of the scheme.
To Nation Cymru Anthony Slaughter warned that a mishandled trial could ‘set the policy back years:
The idea of UBI is to provide every adult with a fixed income every month that would be enough to pay for all basic essentials, regardless of whether they have any other forms of income.
But according to the Greens, the “small pilot, potentially involving people leaving care”, suggested by the Welsh Government, falls short of this.
After initially welcoming the announcement of a UBI pilot, they say to trial the policy with care leavers only misses the main benefit of UBI and defeats the purpose of the trial.
Anthony Slaughter, leader of Wales Green Party said: “Although we welcome this long-standing Green Party policy being pushed up the agenda in Wales, any trial has got to be meaningful.
“Care leavers are massively under-supported, and it’s true that government needs to do more to facilitate their lives outside of care. However, this is not the same as UBI.
“Universal Basic Income is, as the name suggests, universal. Although we welcome further financial support to those who need it, this cannot be confused with UBI.
“The trial simply will not give any useful results unless it is trialled on a sample representative of the population as a whole.
“Mishandling this trial could set UBI in Wales back years.”
Read the whole story at Nation Cymru.
