Earlier in the year, Wales announced that they would end their Universal Basic Income (UBI) social experiment, which had already taken place in Cardiff—a city inside Wales. The researchers in charge of the experiment, however, believe that the decision to pull the plug was premature and potentially destructive to their work and the UBI movement as a whole. This is because the study’s full potential to understand and shape public perception and policy regarding UBI has not been realized.
Research Plan & Current Status
The Welsh UBI experiment aimed to provide residents of Cardiff between the ages of 25 and 59 a living income every month for six months. This UBI was an addition to the money people were already receiving from social benefits, pensions, or other sources of income, and it carried no work requirement.
Although the results of this social experiment are not yet available, the project’s researchers expressed serious concern that the decision to end the experiment would cut short their ability to provide the thorough, conclusive insights that were the foundation of the project’s design and aims.
Why Researchers Believe It’s a Mistake
The researchers have noted that the experiment has already achieved some very valuable successes. For instance, the project led to a marked increase in the number of self-employed and entrepreneurial individuals in the Cardiff region, and it also provided a financial safety net for individuals impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project was further set up to gauge UBI’s impact on mental and physical health, subjective well-being, access to basic resources like housing and food, and even civic engagement. However, with such a limited scope for its implementation and the subsequent, untimely termination of the project, the researchers expressed that the experiment would not be able to provide meaningful analysis on the effects of UBI across a wide range of socioeconomic and behavioral determinants.
Despite these concerns, the team is working tirelessly to complete reports on the findings and impacts of the UBI social experiment before the final closure.
