Rejected petition Implement an immediate individual financial support grant, equivalent to UBI via devolved powers.
We call on the Welsh Government to:
Announce an emergency individual financial support grant by investigating & utilising currently available devolved powers to do so. This grant payment will be considered as a Wales wide UBI & set at a sufficient level, unconditional & universally applied. This is the ONLY way to keep Welsh citizens safe in the near & longer term.
More details
We are in both an acute immediate crisis as well as an established longer term socio-economic crisis in Wales, with one exacerbating the other.
Covid-19 alongside the long term decline in the socio-economic well being of Wales, highlighted by the continual growth of people in Wales (especially children living in Wales) living in poverty, has resulted in the immediate necessity for a sufficient individual support payment similar to a Universal Basic Income to be implemented.
We understand that Welsh Government does not currently have powers to implement a UBI system via a weldare system, however, it does possess powers to make individual grant payments to everyone in Wales via various mechanisms available to them in the available devolved areas.
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s about something that the Senedd or Welsh Government is not responsible for.
The Government of Wales Act 2006 establishes the extent of the Senedd’s power to make new laws and amend existing law (also known as legislative competence). Schedules 7A and 7B of the 2006 Act set out the issues which are ‘restricted’ or ‘reserved’ - i.e. areas where the UK Parliament, not the Senedd, can legislate.
Paragraph 130 of Schedule 7A reserves powers over social security schemes supported from public funds to the UK Parliament. The Explanatory Notes to Schedule 7A provide that forms of financial assistance which are directly administered and funded by central or local government (whether in whole or in part) such as social security benefits, state pensions, allowances, grants, loans or any other form of financial assistance are reserved. It is expressly stated that the Senedd does not have competence to legislate in relation to the setting up or financing of benefit schemes which are established for social security purposes.
Section 108A(6) of the Act provides that question of whether something “relates” to a reserved matter is to be determined “by reference to the purpose of the provision, having regard (among other things) to its effect in all the circumstances.”
The petition is clear that, regardless of the mechanism used to fund the proposal (i.e. a grant), its purpose would be to introduce a Universal Basic Income as a social security scheme supported from public funds.
As a result, it is not possible for the Senedd to take the action called for by your petition because it would be outside the Senedd’s legislative competence.
Further information about the legislative powers of the Senedd can be found here:
https://senedd.wales/en/abthome/role-of-assembly-how-it-works/Pages/Powers.aspx
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards
Rejected petitions are published in the language in which they were submitted