Britain could impose higher taxes on tech giants like Apple, Facebook and Amazon to give everyone under the age of 55 £10,000 as a ‘universal basic income’.
The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) is proposing the Government dish out two £5,000 payments within a decade to give people a better chance of keeping their jobs at a time when robots are taking over.
Anyone within the age bracket could apply for the money to help with the costs of education, training, social care, or starting a new business.
Applicants would forfeit the right to benefits like job seekers’ allowance and tax credits and the money would be levied from the country’s most wealthy.
This could mean hefty taxes on large corporations like Facebook, Apple and Amazon.
The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) is proposing the Government dish out two £5,000 payments within a decade to give people a better chance of keeping their jobs at a time when robots are taking over. File image used
The Universal Basic Opportunity Fund (UBOF) has been dreamt up by RSA’s chief executive Matthew Taylor – who is also leading the Government review into modern day working practices.
The so-called ‘Taylor Review’ was commissioned by the Prime Minister in 2016 to investigate changes to the way we work in light of the increasing ‘gig economy’.
A report on the plans for UBOF says it would provide a ‘stepping stone towards a better way of enabling citizens to live meaningful and contributory lives’.
It reads: ‘While we do not predict that automation will lead to mass job losses, it seems inevitable that the labour market will be reconfigured and require many to adapt.
‘By borrowing around £200bn at historically low interest rates the government could establish a fund, potentially able to pay itself back through economic growth engendered by investment in human capability from the fund.’
This could mean hefty taxes on large corporations like Facebook, Apple and Amazon. File image used
The model, similar to one already in place in Norway, would cost around £14.5billion a year.
One is also being trialled in Finland, which pays 2,000 unemployed people between 28 and 25 £497 a month.
The Scottish Government is testing the idea in four local authority areas and the Labour and Green parties are also looking into it.
It would be similar to Margaret Thatcher’s scheme introduced in the early 1980s, which offered people £40 a week (the modern equivalent of £120 a day) to start a new business for up to a year.
Anthony Painter, director of the RSA’s action and research centre, added: ‘Without a real change in our thinking, neither tweaks to the welfare state nor getting people into work alone – when the link between hard work and fair pay has broken – will help working people meet the challenges ahead.’