<p>A Universal Basic Income</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 11 January 2017.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:40, 11 January 2017

I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for that contribution. It’s very interesting, the example that he points to. Of course, Finland began a pilot of universal basic income on 1 January this year, which is very much focused on the sort of population to which he referred. That’s a major trial involving 2,000 randomly selected people who are currently unemployed, to see what an unconditional basic income might do in their lives.

The idea is not a new one, Llywydd. A long time ago, in the 1970s and 1980s, I spent my time interviewing a group of people who had marched around the streets during the 1930s, demanding what they called ‘the social dividend’, and what was in fact a simple, basic income scheme. So, it’s an idea with considerable roots in our social policy—always struggled to manage to find a practical way of taking it forward. But it is an opportunity for us in Wales to watch what is being attempted elsewhere and to see whether we could do anything practical with the idea ourselves.