As basic income trials take place around the world, the idea can no longer be dismissed as purely utopian. But can it truly reshape economies and societies?

In this episode, Richard Kemp talks with Howard Reed and Elliott Johnson, two of the co-authors of Basic Income: The Policy That Changes Everything, about the reality of basic income. 

They explore various models of implementation, how such a system could be funded, how it differs from the current welfare framework, and the potential for basic income to create transformative change across society.

Howard Reed is Senior Research Fellow in Public Policy at Northumbria University and Director of Landman Economics. Elliott Johnson is Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow in Public Policy at Northumbria University.

Find out more about the book at: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/basic-income

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/06/10/podcast-is-basic-income-the-answer-to-our-age-of-crisis/

Timestamps:

01:34 - What is basic income and how is it different from our current welfare offer?

04:19 - Can you talk more about the conditionality of our current welfare and the behaviour it causes?

05:55 - Has the welfare situation always been this bad?

08:05 - What are the three schemes for basic income?

12:26 - Can you explain why people from wealthy families can afford to fail?

14:54 - How fiscally different would basic income be for people on the ground?

16:53 - What are the wider societal benefits of basic income?

22:27 - Why do you call it basic income instead of universal basic income?

24:39 - Wouldn't prices just go up if everyone had this extra money?

30:26 - How would basic income do better to help child poverty than child benefit?

35:26 - What do we need to do, and what's already being done, to help basic income become a reality?

Intro music:

Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax

Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com 

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