What would you do with a free £1,600 monthly?

<p>Universal basic income is the levelling up trial that’s been getting some considerable attention.</p><p>Now, after projects testing the social welfare scheme in other parts of the world, two similar experiments for here in England are being drawn-up, one in north London’s East Finchley and the other in Jarrow, South Tyneside.</p><p>In the capital, it would see 15 participants given £1,600 per month for two years - just over £575,000 in total - in the hope it can help alleviate poverty for some of the worst-off Londoners so they can pursue studies and work.</p><p>The idea is that automatically giving trial participants the same amount of cash could also reduce the cost to taxpayers of running a complex means-tested benefits system.</p><p>But the controversial scheme’s critics say it’s costly, unproven and gives people money for nothing.</p><p>To find out more, The Leader podcast’s in East Finchley, where volunteers are working with the think-tank Autonomy to bring the scheme to life, subject to a considerable funding boost.</p><p>We’re at the Grange Big Local resident-led, lottery-funded community project, with Julia Hines, a board member and volunteer who’s helping facilitate the universal basic income trial.</p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>