Christian Children’s Charity Welcomes Universal Basic Income Trial In Wales

August 3, 20221003 views0

Christian Children’s Charity Welcomes Universal Basic Income Trial In Wales

2022-08-03T15:57:54+01:00

By Church News

The head of a Christian children’s charity, Ian Soars has welcomed the idea of a Universal Basic Income trial for care leavers in Wales.Care leavers in Wales will be given £1600 a month to help support them into adulthood, while around five hundred 18-year-olds will receive monthly payments as part of a two-year pilot scheme.Ian Soars, CEO of Spurgeons works with vulnerable families, children and young people. He’s been speaking to the media about how the scheme could also encourage churches to provide more support for teenagers leaving care.He stated, “It’s a vulnerable group and it’s not just a special problem for care leavers in Wales.“Most young people at 18 are supported financially, emotionally, they’ve had a reasonable education hopefully and they’ll be cared for in the next phase of life. That’s not true for 18-year-olds in care – what happens is that at 17 years 364 days, they are a child, and the next day, they’re an adult. They’ll go from children’s mental health care to adult mental health care, they go from children’s social services to Adult Social Services.“There’s nowhere for them to go, there’s no natural home and there’s nowhere for them to return to if it all goes wrong. So this manifests in homelessness and mental health issues,” he continued.The financial ‘safety blanket’ that the Welsh government is rolling out to care, for leavers, is the equivalent of the living wage which equates to around £19,000 a year and Soars hopes this move could also be mirrored in England.He said, “Money doesn’t solve the problems, emotionally these people need community, they need care, they need support. They need arms wrapped around them. But it does alleviate the immediate crisis of how do I eat? How do I get heated? How do I survive day to day?“If the government doesn’t step in in the way that the Welsh Government has magnificently done, what’s the alternative? The alternative tends to be sofa-surfing at best if they’re privileged, but mainly the streets and that is a real indictment on us as a culture and society. I think what the Welsh government doing is fantastic.”Ian Soars also noted that it is an opportunity for churches to get involved in helping charities support teenagers who are leaving the care system.ALSO READ The Queen Speaks Of ‘great need for God’ In Letter To Lambeth Bishops