Yesterday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced this government’s spring budget. With living standards set for the largest single-year fall since records began in the mid 1950s, the government will oversee a 5% fall in the real value of welfare benefits through 2022–23. It’s hard not to despair. People need financial security…

In this blog Co-Founder of the Basic Income Conversation Cleo Goodman looks at the details of the Welsh basic income pilot released today Today details of the Welsh basic income pilot have been published in a statement from Jane Hutt, Minister for Social Justice. The Programme for Government 2021–2026 made…

In May we shared an open letter for Mental Health Awareness Week asking ministers to support the exploration of basic income in the UK. It was co-signed by over 2,500 people. We worked on this with some of the participants of the Peace of Mind project. …

In the last week 2,500 people have signed our open letter asking government ministers to consider basic income as a mental health measure. Read on to find out how a basic income would work for our mental health and what we have planned next. Last week was Mental Health Awareness…

As the Basic Income Conversation launches the Conversation Toolkit, Co-Founder Cleo Goodman reflects on why conversations about basic income are so important as we enter year two of the pandemic. Last week marked the one-year anniversary of lockdown in the UK. What a challenging year it’s been. It’s not the…

“The UB-Aye’s have it. The UB-Aye’s have it. 715 to 250.” That was the margin that Liberal Democrat members overwhelming voted Universal Basic Income into party policy at their party conference last September. …

In his recently published new book Let Us Dream, Pope Francis said “I believe it’s time to explore concepts like the universal basic income” signalling a call for a discussion of the idea from perhaps the most high profile proponent of basic income in the world. …

Economist Stewart Lansley is the co-author (with Howard Reed) of the Compass reports, Basic Income for All: From Desirability to Feasibility, and Universal Basic Income, An Idea Whose Time Has Come? These reports have been cited as evidence that basic income is not a solution to poverty, in this blog Stewart examines this claim. — A key claim for a basic income (BI) — a universal payment to all citizens, no questions asked — is that it would be a powerful way of radically reducing poverty in the UK. This notion however has remained a controversial subject for some. Chris Goulden, Policy Director at the…

Co-Founder Cleo Goodman talks about how Basic Income came into her life and why she thinks you should join the Basic Income Conversation. — At the end of last year I got my Basic Income. Kind of… I’ve spent almost all my spare time for the last two years working on Basic Income as volunteer director of Citizen’s Basic Income Network Scotland. In December I got a (paid) job with Compass, tasked with creating…