What’s even more frustrating is that the original model had the potential to be a game-changer (indeed, I would argue that it would be the first step towards a possible UBI but that’s a different argument.)
And then the UK Treasury stepped in. And instead of being a new, parallel scheme that would be allowed to bed in over time with proper issue resolution (as, for instance, happened with tax credits which took almost a decade to sort themselves out but which now work pretty much correctly*), it was seized upon as a method to save money in the short term, which it could never do**, and as a way to redirect anger towards “scroungers”.
*let’s leave aside the problem that late-period capitalism also figured out how to make it work for them, so that the consequences have been horrific for public spending but wonderful for the bottom line of some corporations.
**but it would have saved ridiculous amounts in the medium to long term if it had been funded properly initially. But it had the misfortune to arise at the same time as hyper-austerity was the governing principle, so spending money now was right out.
