Fuck it, just do UBI. Blow up all these fucking programs and just give people a thousand a month. Trying to convince old people to sign up for programs they're eligible for is the god damn worst.
replace welfare and co. with Freedom Dollars™?
Yang apparently alluded to that (partial, opt-in, replacement at first leading to ultimately swapping one for the other) and I would assume it's the unspoken assumption of a lot of UBI proponents if only for pratical, budgetary reasons.
That's absolutely not scientific or anything but back when UBI started to be floated at the national level in France I tried to make a quick calculation of what it would cost. Assuming 30m people get 500€ a month (both low baselines, current total population is 65m or so) it's already a 15 billion euros per month / 180 billions a year program. "Welfare" / Social safety net transfers (Prestations sociales) are estimated at 750+ billions a year* (a third of the GDP), there's no way it gets added on top of that with all the deficit and debt already running.
Also has the allure of saying it will simplify and streamline the administrative hurdles, something that has universal appeal (and even moreso in France) and will help curb public spending by consolidating into a single administration all the different agencies and offices part of the safety net.
Any meaningful UBI (1000 euros a month, really, a bit lower than the monthly minimum wage for a full time position but high enough you could mostly survive in the main) would, as far as I can tell, substitute and replace a number of welfare programs out of budgetary necessity which may not be a good thing.**
* With functioning costs, including healthcare and pensions.
** The leftist argument seems to be that in relative terms, substituting an UBI in place of welfare programs currently in place will significantly degrade in relative terms the help received by people on specific situations currently eligible for financial help (disabilities, unemployment, large families...) even if in absolute terms the payments are roughly equal.