Student Union Motions

Intro  

Due to the fallout of the pandemic, a cost of living crisis and graduates’ hopes for the future being the lowest  they have ever been, this motion urges the council to support a universal basic income as a replacement for  our currently dysfunctional welfare system. Its unconditional nature would break down the stigma associated  with claiming welfare and would be a drastic change in how our country will tackle the problem of material  poverty. 

The Problem  

The mental health of students is in rapid decline. Prior to 2008, students were recorded as having fewer  mental health problems than the general population. But in a 13-year period since then, studies have found  the number of students with depression has doubled, and the number of student suicides has tripled. The  mean for all scores – somatic, anxiety, social and depression – increased by 2.9 points over three years, and  was at its worst in the second year. The spike in problems with mental health in the second year of university  coincides with the financial independence students take on when moving out of halls and into their own  places. 

As the age group 16-24 were hardest hit during the last global recession over a decade ago with 1 million  unemployed in the UK, 27% of employers surveyed noted that they would be less likely to employ graduates  in the near future. Furthermore, the Institute for Fiscal Studies noted that graduates will be forced into  competing for low-skilled employment opportunities that do not require a university degree. We can see the  result of a country not putting faith in students and young people in Spain after the financial crash, with more  than 40% of 18-26-year-old graduates left unemployed, and even more, working on low-paid temporary  contracts. 

The impact of today’s cost of living crisis is both fatal and existential to both students and wider society.  Without a change in the way that material poverty is dealt with, we put the future of this country in jeopardy  

A solution  

To quote Guy Standing ‘A basic income system would aim to assure basic economic security to all,  independent of employment, by providing every legal resident of a country with an equal monthly sum of  money, without conditions, as an economic right.1 Such unconditionality is what distinguishes a basic  income from other welfare programs. A modest basic income would be paid to individuals as individuals,  regardless of household arrangements, work status or prior contributions. Importantly, it would be  guaranteed to all regardless of other income, thus bypassing the stigmatizing and exclusionary means-testing  intrinsic to many welfare programs’. (Standing 2020) 

In previous UBI pilots, a basic income given to students lessened psychiatric disorders, substance abuse  issues and led to an improvement in overall mental well-being (Wilson N, McDaid S, 2021 p.5). Financial  security would allow students to enjoy university on their own terms and help fight back against the mental  health epidemic growing among young people. UBI would also allow graduates the freedom to seek out the  employment they studied for in their degree, as well as boost the economy to create a better future for our  students. Without a heightened level of financial security, we condemn our graduates to a future saddled in  debt, and not under their control. 

Steps Forward 

• We are calling on this Students’ Union to endorse trials and the idea of Universal Basic Income. 

• To ask the university to financially support efforts into analysing the benefits for students from a UBI and for the SU to advocate the idea publicly. 

• To advocate support at NUS level - this is crucial for creating a better understanding of the idea of a UBI in the student community.