An Emergency Universal Salary paid to all...

Make it universal and ask people to reject it if they do not need it.

Are they actually doing this? I lost my job yesterday and haven’t stopped crying since!

If your not in need of it, spend it on those local small businesses who might not otherwise survive. If you can’t physically do that, buy vouchers from them for when you can x

IF they were thinking about it they'd have to move quickly to help people. They don't have the capacity to do any means testing.
Also it helps the economy if people have extra money.

I really hope this idea is rolled out. Dp job Is no vital and currently waiting to hear wether or not they’ll close, they were due to be making redundancies at the end of this month anyway... I was due to start a job with vulnerable ld adults next week and now that has been postponed due to the risks of the adults moving into their new home. We’ve been living on a shoestring for over a year already due to exp no longer paying cm(terminal illness) and then dps overtime that we had come to rely on weekly, completely dried up when company was taken over so no overtime for past year.
It’s all so uncertain, only saving grace for us is we’re in HA housing so that’s one worry that’s taken off the table, but bill paying wise I mean not sure what we’ll do if he just gets laid off.

What about issuing everyone with a pre paid card for say £1000 that can only be spent in local shops, not online chains. Then the money would go straight back into the local economy and not spent at amazon or invested.

Those who need it the most may not have the capacity to apply for it.

I work in welfare. Lots of people I see don't have phones or computers or speak English

Iwould take it, nice addition to my £97k a year

Just give it to someone who does need it then 🤷‍♀️

I find this hard to believe as the cost would be astronomical. Some Labour voters have suggested this in the past but I cannot see it happening in the real world. I believe the Government are in the process of speeding up the benefit system which makes more sense.

OP, can you give a link to anything about this? I've googled but come up with nothing.

If you don’t need it (we don’t and could probably live for years off our savings) the best thing to do is to spend it quickly with local and small businesses or those with lots of contractors (including retailers). I’d always been against the idea of a universal income in normal times but in this situation it actually makes perfect sense and probably much more effective for kick starting the economy than a load of random and disconnected bailouts and stimulus.

I don't think the Tories would do this- could be wrong.

@crazydiamond222 I imagine most people will need it for rent and bills.

I doubt it would be paid to pensioners most of whom have a secure income from pensions or pension credit already. People on benefits already have guaranteed income coming in. If those on Universal credit get less or no pay they will still get the basic amount of UC with no deductions , lots of people don't need it so shouldn't get it. I understand that what the government is trying to do is avoid the complexities of means testing everyone and avoid the UC system being swamped with new claims so I think there will be some kind of payment but to certain groups. If we are paid it I will donate it to my son who has lost his job temporarily whilst the schools have closed.

We are a disabled family living on benefits. So our income isn't affected but our outgoings have been already.

No more hunting for bargains at aldi, our weekly shop has doubled in price (having to order online as have been asked to self isolate for 12 weeks!)

Dc now at home and heating on most of the time as it is a very cold house and dc has asthma. Our utilities will shoot up, usually me and dh just put extra layers on when dc is not here.

I hope they do this.

What about issuing everyone with a pre paid card for say £1000 that can only be spent in local shops, not online chains

Unless those local shops are going to deliver, surely that would just mean that more people were in contact with one another and increase the spread of the virus?

I don’t think the government will do this, but if they did they’d probably look at taking it back from higher earners in the same way they do with child benefit.

While I agree with much of what you are saying, I think it would be impossible to implement if it wasn’t for everyone. How do you take into account salaries? Out goings such as rent which will vary across the country? Self employed income?

However I would say give the money to a food bank or something like that if you can live with out. That’s if this even happens. I can’t see it will sadly. It would make a big difference to me at the moment.

If this happens, and it's not means tested, I suspect it's for ease and speed, not because they want to give wealthy people who don't need it more money.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in this country who if not yet made redundant, are going to be very soon, and an awful lot of families who desperately need money NOW to pay rent, mortgages and bills, and if the government does this, it can't afford the time it would take to means test the entire country.

Hopefully, if this does happen, there will be the option to pay the money back for those who feel they don't need it, and then it will come down to each persons honesty and genuine need. I just hope that for everyone who's struggling and will be struggling very shortly some kind of relief comes soon.

It's hard to say whether means testing would be worthwhile without knowing the proportion of the population who are financially impacted.

Most friends and colleagues I know are not financially impacted. The company I'm currently working for have said they will continue to pay staff who are having to look after children if they just do as much work as they are able from home around that. Everyone else is working from home, actually saving money as not paying to travel or retired.

If they did this and we could get half of my normal salary (which would be £750 after tax) I could take unpaid leave from my (non essential and likely to be impacted) work which would ease their cash flow and allow me to concentrate on the children. Hopefully would mean my work would still be there in a few months. It would be a great relief. My husband is a key worker so obviously the childcare and home educating will fall almost entirely to me.

I like the idea of spending it with small businesses locally if you can. The idea behind it is surely to stimulate the economy and keep money moving around so doing that would be a good way of doing.

I think we will be OK, but I would take it anyway and give it to my friend because it looks like her DH will be out of work soon

Would it be means tested?

The point is many wealthy pensioners dont" need " the heating allowance or a free bus pass either .?Many wealthy families have free school meals for under 7 s . No one knows if someone needs it and it would take too long to administer .We are not in desperate need either ,but would welcome a cash boost (who wouldnt) .With probably keeping some ,and giving say a third to food charities and so on. I risk being shot down on here a second time ,but I really admire Boris and the Governments help at this very difficult time .I was unsure about voting for him and voted for Jo Swinson instead ,however all due respect to Ms Swinson I doubt she would have coped as well as BJ in these difficult circumstances .