Switzerland rejects basic income plan

Voters in Switzerland have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to give all residents a basic income.

The Swiss people voted on the issue in a referendum after independent group Bien-CH gathered well over 100,000 signatures on a petition, warranting a vote under Swiss law.

Official final results showed 76.9% of voters opposed the plans, which proposed to guarantee Swiss nationals and legal residents of at least five years a basic income of around CHF2,500 a month – below the median income of over CHF6000 – whether they are in work or not. The proposal had also included an income of CHF625 per child.

Andreas Ladner, a political scientist at Lausanne University, told RTS the Swiss were "realistic" in their assessment of the UBI plan.

Accepting that people can "be paid without having to work would have been a very big step" for the industrious Swiss, Ladner said.

Opponents of the proposal criticised the plans, which they said would give people little incentive to work, but the campaign’s supporters pointed out the amount being suggested was by no means enough to live on in pricey Switzerland, meaning people would be just as motivated to work.

The idea of a basic income for all is also being considered in Finland, where the government is mulling the possibility of giving it to around 8,000 people on low incomes.

Meanwhile, in the UK, Labour is considering making the idea part of its official party policy. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell is due to appear at the launch of a report on the proposal from the leftwing campaign group Compass in the House of Commons later on Monday.

A source close to the Shadow Chancellor told The Independent: "The concept of a UBI is one among many ideas that has been put to the party in our wider policy review over recent months.

"It is not official Labour party policy or a commitment towards becoming policy.

"It's just an acknowledgement that there's clearly a policy discussion on this matter taking place in think tanks and among academic circles outside the party and we are following the debate as it unfolds."

The idea of a universal basic income is seen by many as a way to tackle automation, as lower-skilled jobs are increasingly being taken over by robots.