It's interesting that they think it will be a disincentive to work, $300 is less than the benefit now when you include the accommodation supplement and quite a lot less if you include training incentive allowance, emergency cash, food allowances, etc. Yet people still work.
I wonder if it would actually be the opposite, with people being able to work legitimately rather than under the table to supplement their income (and not have to fake ACC injuries).
I don't think the study is really sure what effect it would have either.
Sure they have "discourages people from taking entry level jobs" under Costs (and they don't really elaborate much more in the main text), but they also have "Removes disincentive for beneficiaries to undertake part-time work" under Benefits.
At the moment when you're on the unemployment benefit there's a lot of pressure to look for and acquire a job. The lack of that pressure might be a factor in reducing the incentive to get an entry-level job. Or it might be the opposite - an incentive - because you won't lose your benefit when you get one!
It's complicated - the sort of thing that probably needs to be tested in a real-life trial. Too bad it'd be so hard to set up (and potentially revert) at a government level. If only we had a perfect computer simulation of a country.
There'd be so many knock-on effects. Like say you get your $300/wk, and you don't have a job with a company - is there going to be a big exodus from the cities since it's too expensive to live there on a UBI scheme? And you only NEED to be in the city if you have a job there.
It depends on the benefit, I've known quite a few people who have been on the artists benefit and there is no pressure to look for a job there.
People will still gravatate towards cities because that's what we do. However a little easing of the pressure on the three main cities would do wonders, as we know the cost of housing is out of control. With the fibre rollout we'll also see the requirement to live in a city is limited, if you can get 100Mb/s and work from home in the Waiarapa why would you bother living in Lower Hutt and face that commute to Wellington?
I wonder if it would actually be the opposite, with people being able to work legitimately rather than under the table to supplement their income (and not have to fake ACC injuries).