Thing is, poor people would be _more_ at the mercy of the politicians. Especially at the start, when UBI will still be 'novel'. Because the politicians will be

Thing is, poor people would be _more_ at the mercy of the politicians. Especially at the start, when UBI will still be 'novel'. Because the politicians will be able to change UBI, and poor people would at some point start depending on UBI. When the government can just take your money out from under you, that starts making politics quite important. Do note that there will need to be provisions for changing the amount of UBI. At the very least to index it to inflation. Heck, refusal to raise UBI for inflation for long enough would already screw over the people who depend on it.