Is a universal basic income a workable answer?

This proposal isn't really for a UBI is it? Its for a transitionary arrangement to help people through the potential huge job market disruption of the next 10-15 years as technology and transformation factors take hold. £5K a year over two years for "retraining" "resettlement" etc may be a sensible idea.

But actually the whole idea of a UBI isn't that stupid or far fetch an idea. We have gone further and further down that route wit tax credits and the like but at a huge bureaucratic cost and personal disengagement. If you were a business looking at the most efficient way to ensure a minimum standard of living to people you certainly wouldn't start with the byzantinely complex range of benefits, allowances and means tested payments that we have that cost an absolute fortune to run.

I understand the labour party are seriously considering some form of UBI as their big idea for the next election - and given the state of play we may well be seeing an experiment in this far sooner than we expect.