UBI Piloter's Network
Newsletter 16, November 2024
It's time for a welfare revolution in the UK
Basic income and services would reimagine welfare, our leaders just need the courage try something new
Vibhor Mathur- 4th November, 2024
Anew government with significant majority now holds power in Westminster. Starmer claims to have grand visions for a new Britain, but to date he has only carried forward the myopic legacy to welfare he inherited. His main intervention so far has been to take away winter fuel subsidies from pensioners and retain the two-child benefit cap. Even the recent budget of ‘giveaways’, including a boost to universal credit and public spending, will lead to net funding cuts for many by 2029.
To say we could do better would only be re-stating the obvious. We need to stop tinkering at the edges and move towards more radical reform.
Read Vibhor Mathur's article in full here
UBI4ALL’s 7th Raffle Announcement: November 24, 2024
UBI4ALL is excited to announce its 7th UBI Raffle, taking place on November 24, 2024! This is another opportunity to experience UBI in real life and to inspire even more people with the idea of Basic Income. Registration is simple and free of charge:
Step 1 – register with UBI4ALL: https://www.ubi4all.org/register
Step 2 – confirm your participation https://www.ubi4all.org/raffle-participation
Remember, UBI Beavers automatically participate in every raffle, as they are the primary supporters who make these raffles possible with their generous donations. Good luck everyone!
New report on the Ethics of Basic Income Piloting
Increasing calls for reform to welfare provision have seen growing support for basic income (BI) – the unconditional provision of cash transfers to all. As a result, recent years have seen an exponential increase in the number of pilot experiments of BI, across all parts of the world. However, to date, there has been little discussion of the ethical considerations of such experiments. This paper is the outcome of a workshop whereby BI piloters came together to discuss such ethical considerations, share case studies, and begin to formulate general principles to guide ethical BI experiments. The paper discusses the ethical considerations relevant to the various stages of a pilot experiment and concludes with some general principles: to do-no-harm, maintain respect, dignity, and agency; mitigate power inequalities, promote trust and transparency, and ensure substantive unconditionality. The authors of the paper hope to stimulate discussions towards an ethical protocol for better practice in BI experiments and provide a useful resource to those working on, or interested in, BI research.
To read the report click here.
Unconditional Film Launch – Monday Nov 18, Chancellor’s Building2.1, Bath Uni, 6.15pm | UBI
