Covid 19 isn’t the reason we need a UBI
Universal basic income (UBI) has once again rocketed to the top of agenda, with calls for its introduction coming from across the political spectrum, celebrities, and members of the general public with little previous interest in the welfare state or unemployment benefits.
The apparent reason for this surge in interest in UBI is the Covid 19 pandemic, a global health crisis on a scale not seen for a hundred years. Millions are losing their jobs overnight, and businesses are being forced to close their doors for indefinite periods. People are desperate for help, advice and income. We need a UBI to keep people afloat, to enable us to pay the rent, to feed our families and keep the economy moving, goes the call.
But Covid 19 in and of itself isn’t the reason we’re facing these enormous challenges. If a vaccine could be developed in days rather than months, if health services had sufficient resources and effective methods to successfully treat those infected, if we had universally available testing from the start of the outbreak, the economic and personal impacts would be on a completely different scale. But none of these are on the cards, for scientific, political and economic reasons.
It has instead thrown into sharp focus the existing deficiencies, inequalities and gaps in our systems, institutions and attitudes. We’re being forced to confront the complexity and scarcity of our welfare safety net.
In 2016 I spoke to policymakers, UBI advocates and politicians in Ontario, the Netherlands, Finland and Scotland to understand how and why UBI had risen up their policy agendas to become the subject of multi-million euro (or dollar) experiments. Despite the many differences between the places, cultures and administrations, a number of strikingly common themes became apparent:
· existing social assistance systems were failing in their efforts to move people into work, they were too complicated and bureaucratic, and they stigmatised those in poverty, and kept people poor, rather than helping them out
· the nature of work had changed, and was continuing to change, in ways that undermined job security and economic stability for workers
· these problems were not seen as standalone issues, but part of a bigger, interconnected mess of issues that could not be solved in isolation.
These issues have not been solved in the intervening 4 years, in those countries or anywhere else. As more and more of us with little or no personal experience of the benefit system are forced to engage (950,000 people claimed Universal Credit in a 2-week period in March), its deficiencies have become all too clear. How am I supposed to live on £318 a month; why do I have to wait 5 weeks to get a payment, how am I meant to cope in the meantime; why am I not eligible for anything, have been the cries.
The government’s support packages for furloughed workers, the self-employed and businesses are welcome, but by no means universal: many will fall through the cracks.
A universal payment, whether just for this period of crisis or longer, would ensure no-one missed out, and could reduce the administration needed to implement UC and the relief schemes (although we shouldn’t pretend a UBI could be introduced overnight). It would also enable us to truly understand and begin to unpick the stress and hardship caused by our existing system, and the accompanying public attitudes to those out of work and claiming benefits.
(c) Anna Dent 2020. I provide social research, policy analysis and development, writing and expert opinion, and project development in Good Work and the Future of Work / In-Work Poverty and Progression / Welfare benefits / Ethical technology / Skills / Inclusive growth