This report by the Fabian Society suggests that when thinking about risks arising from the future world of work, a Universal Basic Income (UBI) has some advantages over the current social security and tax system, but also a range of drawbacks. And in many cases, other more practical tax and benefit reforms offer different or better solutions. While no one can be sure how the labour market will evolve over the coming decades, the evidence suggests we must at least prepare for the five risks identified in the report: stagnant pay, insecure work, skills and jobs dislocation, rising inequality and insufficient work. It emphasises that in practice, the response to these challenges will not come from a single policy, whether it is UBI or anything else - the answers will lie in multi-layered reforms to our tax and social security system with tiers of financial support working in combination: universal as well as means-tested; unconditional as well as conditional; non-contributory as well as contributory.
