Labour Should Commit to a Basic Income Pilot

This week it was revealed that the troubled families scheme, launched by David Cameron in 2012, has had “no discernible impact” on employment, truancy and adult and child offending. The scheme was initiated following the 2011 riots with the aim of “turning around” troubled families. However, an unpublished Whitehall report suggests that it has badly failed in its mission. The scheme has so far targeted 120,000 families around the country at a cost of £400 million, with a further £900 million due to be spent on another 400,000 families by 2020, meaning around £2500 will have been spent per family.

This money could instead have been spent on trialling basic income, and likely with better outcomes. The total cost of £1.3 billion would have easily funded a reasonably large-scale basic income pilot. For the same amount, 156,250 individuals could be given an unconditional weekly payment of £80 for two whole years. And if the pilot was designed to temporarily scrap job seekers allowance and perhaps reduce in-work benefits in the trial area, the pilot could even cost less than this or be widened in scale.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has already shown an interest in a universal basic income, and I believe a pilot is the sort of idea that the Labour Party should be looking at for the next general election, whenever is and whoever their leader may be. The party could use a pilot to test what impact a basic income would have on things like employment, mental and physical health, school performance, crime, entrepreneurship and private debt.

Some ardent supporters of basic income might say “oh but we’ve had successful pilots around the world already, let’s just get on with it and implement basic income for real”. However, it could be political suicide for the Labour Party to commit to a basic income before the public has had a real chance to acquaint themselves with the idea and be convinced. I would worry that the British public would reject basic income – just like the Swiss did in June – if they don’t have the opportunity to see it in action first. As Jeremy Corbyn has said, a basic income would be “a major, major change in social policy”. A pilot could provide us with further evidence that basic income really is the way forward and move us a step closer to its implementation.

So why not find a town or region with a higher than average unemployment rate in, say, the north of England, and try giving all working-age individuals a no-strings-attached £80 a week for a couple of years and see what happens? After all, it can’t go worse than the failed troubled families scheme.

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