Give Workers £10k To Survive Automation, Top Think Tank Suggests
Britons should be able to bid for £10,000 to help them prosper amid huge changes to their working lives, a leading think tank suggests today.

The Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) has released research proposing a radical new sovereign wealth fund, which would be invested to make a profit like similar public funds in Norway.

The returns from the fund would be used to build a pot of money, to which working-age adults under-55 would apply to receive a grant in the coming decade.

People would have to set out how they intend to put the five-figure payouts to good use, for example, by using the cash to undergo re-training, to start a new business, or to combine work with the care of elderly or sick relatives.

It would be funded like the student grant system and wealthier individuals could be required to pay back more in tax as their earnings increase.

Ultimately, the RSA paper suggests, the wealth fund would finance a Universal Basic Income (UBI) as the world of modern work is turned upside down by increased automation, new technology and an ageing population.

The UBI would, the charity says, be best used to reward “good work” rather than simply replace existing benefits.

This proposal is not quite an unconditional model – which replaces all state benefits – currently being tested in Finland.

‘Households vulnerable to shock’

Anthony Painter, Director of the RSA’s Action and Research Centre, said: “Economic insecurity risks becoming the new normal unless we take action: around a third of the workforce today are economically insecure, and many more out of work can seem permanently excluded.

“The simple fact is that too many households are highly vulnerable to a shock in a decade of disruption, with stormclouds on the horizon if automation, Brexit and an ageing population are mismanaged.

“Without a real change in our thinking, neither tweaks to the welfare state nor getting people into work alone, when the link between hard work and fair pay has broken, will help working people meet the challenges ahead.

“Equally though those who advocate a Universal Basic Income must show how it is pro-work rather than post-work, and develop specific ideas to fund it. Our report is an attempt to do exactly that.”

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/rsa-research-universal-basic-income_uk_5a8589dee4b0774f31d2977e

AACAP Adopts New Policy Statement on “Conversion Therapy”

Earlier this month, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) approved a policy statement stating that “‘conversion therapies’ should not be part of any behavioral health treatment of children and adolescents.” Previously, practice parameters on “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Youth” had been published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, stating, “clinicians should be aware that there is no evidence that sexual orientation can be altered through therapy, and that attempts to do so may be harmful… Given that there is no evidence that efforts to alter sexual orientation are effective, beneficial or necessary, and the possibility that they carry the risk of significant harm, such interventions are contraindicated.”

The new AACAP policy expands on this: “The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry finds no evidence to support the application of any ‘therapeutic intervention’ operating under the premise that a specific sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression is pathological. Furthermore, based on the scientific evidence, the AACAP asserts that such ‘conversion therapies’ (or other interventions imposed with the intent of promoting a particular sexual orientation and/or gender as a preferred outcome) lack scientific credibility and clinical utility. Additionally, there is evidence that such interventions are harmful.”

Conversion therapy has been universally criticized by the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, American Medical Association and every other mainstream medical and mental health organization. Increasingly, more states are taking action to protect LGBTQ youth from the harmful practice. California, Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and the District of Columbia have enacted laws or regulations to protect minors from being subjected to so-called “conversion therapy” by state-licensed mental health providers. In several states, these bills were signed into law by Republican governors, illustrating the bipartisan support for curbing the harmful practice.

And these bipartisan efforts are making a difference.

A Williams Institute study found that 6,000 LGBTQ youth who live in states that protect against the practice would have been subjected to conversion therapy by a licensed healthcare professional if these protections had not been put in place.

However, more work needs to be done. The same Williams Institute report found that approximately 20,000 LGBTQ minors will be subjected to conversion therapy by a licensed healthcare professional in states without laws protecting them from the practice.

That is why HRC is working with organizations such as the National Center for Lesbian Rights to expand the number of states that protect minors from conversion therapy, and with municipalities around the country to pass local legislation when states are slow to act. In the past month, the Washington State Senate and New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to advance legislation that would protect LGBTQ youth from conversion therapy. In addition, last week, Maryland lawmakers introduced bills in both state legislative chambers to safeguard LGBTQ minors from this dangerous and discredited practice.  

At the federal level, HRC is working to pass the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act, which would expressly classify the selling and advertising of so-called “conversion therapy” as prohibited consumer fraud. Last year, dozens of AACAP members joined HRC for a Children’s Mental Health Providers LGBTQ Youth Policy Lobby Day, where attendees lobbied on the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act and other legislation that would impact LGBTQ youth.

HRC commends AACAP for this new policy statement and is committed to ensuring that in every state, LGBTQ youth are protected from this destructive and detrimental practice.

www.hrc.org/blog/aacap-adopts-new-policy-statement-on-conversion-therapy?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed