by Peter Knight | Apr 24, 2024 | News
Photo by Darpan on Unsplash
Note: Like many pilot programs, this one does not meet the BIEN definition of basic income because it is not universal for residents in its geographic region.
“A Seattle-area guaranteed basic income pilot gave low-income residents $500 a month to help reduce poverty. Employment in the group nearly doubled, and numerous unhoused residents secured housing.
The Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County launched a 10-month guaranteed basic income pilot program with 102 participants in fall 2022. New findings by research firm Applied Inference reveal that the $5,000 total payments improved participants’ quality of life, housing, and employment outcomes.”
To read the full Business Insider article, click here.
To read the full report by Applied Inference, LLC click here.
by Peter Knight | Apr 12, 2024 | News
Rx Kids launched their pilot this January 2024 where every person who gives birth in Flint, MI will receive a basic income during late stage pregnancy, $1,500 (lump-sum), and the first year of their baby’s life, $500 each month.
What’s so exciting about this pilot?!
- Rx Kids is a universal program for all new parents and their babies in Flint, MI. This is one of the few universal programs of its kind, where everyone of a specific demographic, in a specific geographical area, gets the money. This truly paves the way for scaling to state level, where we could imagine every new baby born in a state receiving basic income for the first years of their life.
- The funding for this program is also important – it includes public funding from TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). TANF is federal block grants allocated to states who then decide how to disburse the money. This use of TANF funds provides a model for other pilots to use these public dollars moving forward, an important new development as the American Rescue Plan dollars that funding many pilots during the pandemic runs out.
by Peter Knight | Apr 4, 2024 | News
“In September 2021, Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui and the Cambridge Community Foundation launched the Cambridge Recurring Income for Success & Empowerment (RISE) guaranteed income (GI) pilot. Designed to address growing economic disparities and racial inequities, Cambridge RISE provided $500 recurring monthly payments for 18 months to 130 randomly selected single-caretaker households living below 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI). To maximize the impact of the monthly GI, the RISE team secured benefit waivers to protect housing and DTA public benefits for pilot participants.1 Launched during an unprecedented time of pandemic-related stressors and inflation, Cambridge RISE provided critical relief to single caregivers who were responding to added burdens related to remote work and school and childcare center closures.
The Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) conducted a mixed-methods Randomized Controlled Trial to evaluate Cambridge RISE and randomly assigned 130 caregivers to the treatment arm and 156 caregivers to the control arm.”
To view the full report, click here.
by Peter Knight | Mar 23, 2024 | News
Note: This pilot program’s recipients are means-tested so the program does not meet BIEN’s definition of basic income.
“Mayor Katjana Ballantyne joins more than 100 mayors from across the country as part of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI), a coalition of mayors who establish and advocate for local and national guaranteed income programs. Guaranteed income programs provide unrestricted cash payments directly to vulnerable residents to create greater financial stability for those most in need. Somerville’s program goes beyond that general goal; it also specifically aims to support housing stability. The city’s program will serve a group of the city’s lowest-income households who are at risk of losing their housing.”
To read the full article, click here.
by Scott Santens | Feb 28, 2024 | News
Image credit: Scott Santens and Midjourney v6
The Foundation for Government Accountability – a Florida-based lobbying group backed by the richest 1% – is working to get basic income experiments banned by state legislators across the U.S.
As a well-known quote often wrongly attributed to Mahatma Ghandi says, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” As of 2024, the basic income movement in the United States is now firmly in the “then they fight you” stage thanks to a slew of bills introduced in state after state that are all attempting to ban the basic income experiments that have spread across the country. Over 150 guaranteed basic income pilots are now ongoing or recently completed in 24 states as of this writing, and so far, bills in seven states have been introduced to stop them. All of the bills are the result of efforts by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) – a lobbying group with a billionaire-fueled junk science record every American should know about. ….
To read the full article, click here.
