Public values, Universal Basic Income and health: developing a mixed-methods study to elicit and deliberate public values for Universal Basic Income and comparator policies in relation to their impact on population health and health inequalities

In spite of world-class research on health inequalities and decades of policy recognition, the UK’s health divide is widening. Action is required upstream on underlying causes of poor health. Universal Basic Income (UBI) is proposed as one potentially transformative policy and modelling work has estimated the positive effect of UBI on population health and health inequalities. This work is a vital first step, but a rigorous, mixed-method study of public values is needed. This would assess: a) whether the costs of UBI are justifiable in terms of the value placed on improving population health (outcomes) and on reducing health inequalities (distribution) in the context of comparator income-based policies, and b) whether policies are supported in ideological terms. The development work proposed will provide a firm basis for a mixed-method study of public values, UBI and health.