A journalist at the Daily Telegraph has taken a swipe at the Welsh Government's basic income trial, describing it as a "vanity project". Kara Kenney also attacked First Minister Mark Drakeford calling him "economically illiterate".
Writing for the newspaper, Kara Kennedy said that it was a "hard truth" that UBI doesn't work and that people needed to "get a job, work hard and move up the socioeconomic ladder". She said supporting care leavers through the scheme was a "social betrayal".
She said Mr Drakeford was the author of "an attempt to show that everyone can receive large sums of cash without doing anything in return". And she continued: “It isn’t just economically illiterate, it is social betrayal."
She wrote: "For people like me, who come from modest backgrounds, the best way to progress is through work. You get a job, work hard and move up the socioeconomic ladder. That is at times made difficult by macroeconomic circumstances. But not at this moment, when Britain has record job vacancies."
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She added: “One of the long hangovers of lockdown is that a large section of society, in all four nations of the UK, has bought into the arrogant notion that life itself – and not work – should pay. Independence and fulfilment have been downgraded in place of dependence and self-absorption.”
The Welsh Government scheme will see you care leavers given £1,600 every month for two years. The trial scheme, known as a Basic Income pilot, is designed to help those who have been brought up in care transition to adult life as well as gathering data about the merits of universal basic income.
The total cost of the scheme will be £20m and an evaluation of the three-year scheme will be carried out, with the Welsh Government saying that it will be classed as a success if there have been positive improvements in areas like mental health, wellbeing, employment or education. Those eligible can get £1,600 per calendar month (£1,280 after tax) with no restrictions on what the money can be spent on.
Supporters of UBI said it offers the potential to revolutionise our society by giving people the financial security to to take entrepreneurial risks and allow people to fulfil caring responsibilities which otherwise would have been taken on by the state. WalesOnline have previously conducted an analysi s of how the rise of robotics and automation will have huge changes on employment with UBI being touted as a part of the solution to the challenges presented by this.
Recent research carried out by leading think tank Autonomy, found UBI would decrease overall poverty rates in Wales by 50%, and child poverty would decrease by 64%, bringing it to a rate of under 10% in Wales. It is currently at 28% – the worst in the UK. It also found nearly three-quarters of people in Wales, 69%, support piloting UBI.
In her article Ms Kennedy said that "work-shy Britain has a new political hero" .
Drawing on evidence that UBI couldn't work, she said that furlough had been "a version" of basic income and it had led to little to no GDP benefit, a cost of living crisis and a workforce to the detriment of our already-low productivity rate". Experts agree that the cost of living crisis is driven by a number of factor including Brexit, the war in Ukraine, high oil prices and the increased demand following the pandemic.
Taking aim at First Minister Mark Drakeford she added: "It might be easy for Drakeford's administration to ignore these problems, given that they land neatly on the in-trays of UK ministers rather than devolved ones, but they are all too real. His vanity projects come at precisely the wrong time, with Britain facing a painful recession that could suddenly leave millions out of work. And what about the inflationary impact of putting thousands in people's pockets without producing a single product?"
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