The Welsh government is offering every 18-year-old in Wales who has left their parents’ care £19,200 per year (almost €23,000) as a “basic income” scheme – whether they work or not.
The scheme will be open to around 500 people as a trial, and will be doled out in monthly payments of £1,600 (€1,909). Individuals can apply once they turn 18 and have left their social care. It is expected to cost the Welsh state around £20m in total and will run for 24 months.
This is believed to be the most generous basic income scheme in the world. While the sum will be taxable, it will be unconditional, and will not be revoked even if the trial participant gets a job.
Welsh Social Justice Minister Jane Hutt said that this plan would “deliver financial stability for a generation of young people that need it most.”
While Labour Party ministers strongly advocated for the move, Conservative MPs said they were “not even close to living in reality” with the idea. A Welsh conservative spokesman said that previous trials had consistently failed to incentivise work, asserting that such schemes “prove time after time to be a waste of public money.”
The move comes as the UK experiences a crippling labour shortage, with a record 1.3 million job vacancies, and half a million fewer people in work in comparison to the pre-Covid peak.