3. Statement by the Minister for Social Justice: Basic Income for Care Leavers Pilot

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:27 pm on 28 June 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 3:27, 28 June 2022

Well, we've identified and we've agreed in our budget the £20 million. It is actually—. I wanted to say that one of the points that I haven't been able to highlight is that this is one of the most generous payments in the whole of the world that we're making. We're making it, actually, partly because, when we heard that the UK Government was going to tax it, we knew that we had to make it of a sufficient amount to make it actually worthwhile for young people to consider this option.

We do believe that our investment in this, and the evaluation—a dynamic, continuous process for the life of the pilot—will prove whether this is going to make a substantive difference to those young people’s lives. So, I'm very happy to come back and report. I think that many will want to meet the young people; I'm sure they will be very keen to do so, to tell you about the impact of this and the difference that it has made to their lives. And then, actually, to start costing what this means in terms of investing in these young people—investing so that other public services may not be needed in their lives, in terms of housing, and the impact of perhaps those difficulties that many young people in care often do face, in terms of homelessness, substance misuse.

But we're looking at this as—. These young people who've spoken to us, you can see, if you read their stories, that they know what they want to spend this money on. It’s to make their lives resilient. It’s about making sure that they have got the opportunities, and saying, ‘We have now got hope, and we want to prove that we can use this money and move forward in our lives in a positive, proactive way.’ That’s what this is all about.