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Unofficially, the 'message' from the government is "don't work". Even if you want to. Especially in types of work where you come in to close contact with people - manufacturing, shops, logistics, cleaning, the stuff that keeps the wheels on the bus.
UBI assumes people want to, and can work.
You can UBI all you want, but if nobody can work, or they think working is too dangerous, nothing will get done, and prices will rise to reflect scarcity because nothing is being created / supplied / put on shelves.
This is extreme, but this is why I said The Danger Is , not This Will Happen.
Howard-
Sorry, I assumed that we were talking post-Covid when things are back to normal.
In the current situation, the financial support (UBI if you like) is the result of people not working. Not the cause of it. The cause of people not working is the government directive not to and the closure of shops, bars, restaurants etc. However, in the absence of those conduits for spending, demand will effectively drop as well. There's obviously still a demand for food from shops, but that is being supported by people still working food production and supply chains, so there's no supply/demand disparity there once the daft panic-buying has passed.
ffm
But UBI is the antidote to that because anything you earn on top of UBI you get to keep (subject to taxation at least). So @frankenbike won't be better off by £2/hr if he goes back to work, if they kept the 80% salary cover as UBI, he'd be better off by 80% (slightly less in effect if it some of that income were in a higher tax bracket)