A universal basic income (UBI) could be introduced as a financial safety net for British workers whose jobs face being wiped out due to artificial intelligence (AI), a Labour minister has revealed.
Investment minister Lord Jason Stockwood has confirmed the Government is actively discussing the introduction of the benefit as businesses increasingly adopt this new technology.
Lord Stockwood, who took on his new role in September, Lord Jason Stockwood, told The Financial Times that AI would bring “bumpy” societal changes requiring “some sort of concessionary arrangement with jobs that go immediately”.
“Undoubtedly we’re going to have to think really carefully about how we soft-land those industries that go away, so some sort of [universal basic income], some sort of life-long mechanism as well so people can retrain,” he said.
While UBI remains outside official policy, Lord Stockwood confirmed colleagues were “definitely talking about it” despite the push for tighter restrictions on Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits.
The minister’s comments arrived in the same week that Anthropic’s chief executive cautioned that AI represented a “general labour substitute for humans” that would cause “unusually painful” disruption to employment markets.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has also sounded the alarm this month about a potential “new era of mass unemployment” driven by artificial intelligence.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall acknowledged on Wednesday that “some jobs will go” because of AI, pointing to early concerns about entry-level positions in the finance and legal sectors.
However, Ms Kendall maintained that job creation would outpace losses, stating: “more jobs will be created than will go, but I’m not complacent about that”. She pledged government support for affected workers, saying: “We will not leave individuals and communities to cope on their own”.
Lord Stockwood took on the ministerial position vacated by Poppy Gustafsson, the former Darktrace chief executive who departed after less than twelve months in the role. He has previously floated the idea of technology firms paying a windfall levy to finance UBI payments.
He said: “I think of the productivity gains and the wealth that AI can create, but we also need to think of the more pernicious and near-term danger that it just embeds inequality and makes a really small cohort of super-wealthy elites even wealthier because they control the capital and the technologies.”
The minister’s background differs markedly from many peers in the House of Lords, having grown up on a Grimsby council estate without knowing his father and watching his single mother work multiple jobs including debt collection and dock shifts.
Lord Stockwood worked at Lastminute.com, Travelocity and Match.com before leading the sale of online insurance broker Simply Business to Travelers for $490 million in 2017, enabling him to acquire a stake in Grimsby Town football club where he serves as chairman.
The minister expressed firm backing for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to lead Labour into the next election, describing Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham as “brilliant” while emphasising that “what we need now is stability”.
According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), paying every working-age adult a payment matching the basic rate of Universal Credit would cost over £200billion annually, which is more than the entire NHS budget.
Furthermore, many advocates of a universal basic income argue that the level of Universal Credit is not sufficient for most people to live. Even if the Government scrapped our entire means-tested benefit system, they would be left with a large price tag.
If such as scheme were to be rolled, the IFS claims Government ministers will have to raise broad-based taxes such as VAT, National Insurance Contributions, or Income Tax substantially.
Of course, much of that increase would represent taking in taxes from the same people who were now being given a UBI. These people may not be affected much by the change; the government would be taking with one hand and giving with another.
However, the think tank noted: “A UBI could reduce the complexity of the welfare system, improving take-up, and cutting administrative costs. It may improve work incentives by removing benefit withdrawal as earnings rise.
“You would keep more of each pound you earn, which might persuade you to take on more work or look for a better-paying job.”
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