Six in 10 believe everyone in Britain should get a Universal Basic Income - loveMONEY poll

Majority of loveMONEY readers are in favour of a set basic income for all.

Over 60% of loveMONEY readers think the Government should give everyone in the UK a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to live on.

The concept, which has been trialled in countries like the US, Canada, Finland and Namibia, involves every adult in the country getting a set stipend – regardless of whether they are working or not. People that want to work, can earn more and those that can’t work or even choose not to, can live off the basic support provided by the state.

In some models this system replaces welfare benefits entirely in others it acts as a way to supplement them and make them less complicated.

This may sound like a fringe concept but it’s becoming a model that more and more countries are exploring. Switzerland held a referendum on introducing a version of it as recently as June 5.

In a recent poll, we asked loveMONEY readers whether the Government should give everyone in Britain a basic income.

A massive six in 10 (62%) said that the Government should introduce a UBI. While 38% disagreed with the concept being brought in.

Read more about the arguements for and against UBI here: Should the Government give everyone in Britain a basic income?

Could the UK Government listen?

In the UK, the Green Party officially support the idea of a UBI and groups like Citizens Income Trust have been pushing the idea for 30 years.

It’s generally been thought that the idea of getting an income for nothing is hard for governments to push but as our poll suggests it is more accepted than we think.

However, the biggest question around the concept is whether we can afford it and unfortunately that’s not very easy to answer.

In Switzerland the referendum was doomed to fail because there was no clear guide of what the basic income would be and how much it would cost to implement.

However, in the UK we have recently introduced something resembling the Universal Basic Income for pensioners with the New State Pension. So it’s not completely out of the question that it could become a reality for those of working age too.

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