A report from the RSA suggests that Universal Basic Income (UBI) is affordable and could be an effective preventative public health strategy, addressing “a crisis in mental health among young people”.
In a chapter on income and mental health, the team behind the report – led by Matthew Johnson, Professor of Politics at Northumbria University – analyses Understanding Society data. They show that “increases in household income over the course of childhood and adolescence are associated with reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression in 16-24-year-olds … apart from in those with the very highest incomes. The reverse is true when average income drops.”
They also find that young people aged 16-24 from households in the lowest quintile (20 percent) of average incomes are more likely than the second lowest of reporting clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and depression. They add: “The second lowest has a higher probability than the middle quintile and so on up the income scale”.
The report was funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of a broad, long-term examination of the role of UBI as a public health measure.
The report points out that this age group is a complex one, because of the “life transition points” in it, which could expose young people to financial stress. Also people at this age are likely to be in education or in the early stage of a career, so will be earning less than older age groups. They’re also more likely to be single, and to be paying housing costs without a partner.
The chapter concludes: “These findings suggest that we need to be concerned about increasing the financial resources that people experience day-to-day, including via such policies as Universal Basic Income and through greater financial regulation, particularly with regard to lending criteria.”
Health and wellbeingMoney and financesYoung people
