The Welsh Basic Income Evaluation

The  Welsh Government Commissioned four-year evaluation of the basic income pilot scheme will assess outcomes for young adults receiving the income, the scheme’s costs and benefits, and how it works out in practice for those receiving and delivering the scheme.

This research project runs from November 2022 to November 2026 and is led by CASCADE. The research team involves academics from Kings College London, University of Oxford, the University of York, the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, Northumbria University and The Centre for Homelessness Impact.

Overview

From 1 July 2022, more than 500 young people leaving care in Wales have been offered £1600 each month (before tax) for two years to support them as they make the transition to adult life. Those whose 18th birthdays fall between 01.07.22 are 30.06.23 will be part of the scheme.

Basic income schemes have been trialed in a number of ways around the world in recent years, but this scheme is the most generous to date. The evaluation will increase our understanding of the impact and mechanisms of basic income provision and will explore a range of health and social impacts of the scheme alongside the impact on income, work and study.

Activities and Methods

This is a large and complex evaluation. Our overall design is a quasi-experimental impact and value-for-money evaluation, with a multi-method implementation and process evaluation. The evaluation uses a suite of quasi-experimental approaches, which will enable triangulation between multiple data sources. Through this we aim to provide a robust account of the difference Basic Income makes to care leavers in Wales.

Our evaluation is structured around the following five work packages:

1. Co-production
2. Theory enhancement
3. Impact evaluation and data linkage framework development
4. Implementation and process evaluation
5. Economic evaluation

Findings

This Project is ongoing