No transition instrument for AI-displaced workers: the UK has no TAA equivalent

Skills-side spending exists (Growth and Skills Levy, £2.5bn Youth Guarantee, £187m TechFirst, a stated 10m-worker upskilling target), but there is no income-bridging or wage-insurance instrument for mid-career workers whose occupations contract: no UK analogue of US Trade Adjustment Assistance or Danish flexicurity. IPPR's proposed worker support levy and portable benefits remain unadopted. The only UK income-floor evidence, the Welsh Basic Income for Care Leavers pilot (£1,600/month, 635+ participants, ended 2025), targets a different population and reports finally in summer 2027.

Call-centre employment is already down 19%; DSIT puts a third of the workforce in the displacement-risk segment. Retraining without income security fails historically; waiting for displacement to become visible before designing the instrument guarantees the response arrives years late.

A pilot AI Transition Fund combining time-limited wage insurance, a funded retraining entitlement and job-search support, targeted first at contact-centre and administrative occupations already contracting, with a built-in RCT-grade evaluation. It could be funded by government, a foundation consortium (JRF/Nuffield), or a metro mayor.

// Build together: Counterparty: foundation consortium (JRF/Nuffield) or a metro mayor as funder-of-record for the pilot.

A third of the workforce sits in the displacement-risk zone with no income-bridging instrument, the fill is entirely unowned, but no dated trigger forces action this year.