by Peter Knight | Dec 21, 2023 | News
A new report on a recently concluded statewide guaranteed income pilot program with immigrant families shows how unrestricted cash assistance programs allowed low-wage earners to pursue better jobs, increase their educational levels, and improve other critical outcomes for their children.
“The NM Economic Relief Working Group’s 18-month guaranteed income (GI) pilot selected 330 mixed-immigration status households to receive unconditional direct cash transfers of $500 monthly for 12 months from February 2022 to February 2023. One-third of households sampled came from rural communities and two-thirds from urban communities. An additional extension was granted to 50 randomly-selected mixed-status households to receive $500 monthly for an additional 6 months (February 2023-August 2023).
Immigrant families were chosen for the pilot because polling showed these families struggled significantly more than the general population during the pandemic because of numerous exclusions from the country’s safety net; these exclusions were due to lack of a social security number even if the household had U.S.-citizen children. In addition, many immigrant parents are not eligible for public safety-net programs, such as unemployment insurance, even though many are essential workers, make substantial tax contributions, and have positive economic impacts on our communities, state, and nation.
After receiving guaranteed income checks for a year:
• Rural participants reporting increases in employment: 14% increase
• Urban participants reporting having unstable work schedules: 36% decrease
• Rural participants reporting having unstable work schedules: 17% decrease
• Participants reporting, they had trouble paying the rent or mortgage on time: 35% decrease
• Participants reporting having to reduce or forego expenses for basic household necessities, such as medicine or food, in order to pay the rent or mortgage: 9% decrease
• Urban participants reporting having to reduce or forego expenses for basic household necessities, such as medicine or food, in order to pay the rent or mortgage: 18% decrease
Also, as part of its advocacy, the ERWG obtained a state rule change so that receiving regular GI payments do not count as income and thus do not negatively impact recipients’ SNAP or TANF allotments. ERWG’s longer term goal is to get the State of New Mexico to provide economic supports to participants in workforce development projects, specifically childcare, home health care and the oil & gas industries.
The report, “Guaranteed Income: Increasing Employment and Helping Families Thrive,” on the New Mexico Guaranteed Income Pilot Program for Immigrant Families, was released on December 12, 2023.”
Here is a link to the report and the fact sheet.
by Peter Knight | Dec 20, 2023 | News
Since launching in 2020, Mayors for a Guaranteed Income has grown its ranks from 11 to 125 US mayors. Building off of that momentum, Counties for a Guaranteed Income was launched this past February, led by co-chairs Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who is the first to promise a permanent program, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell, who led the creation of Breathe: Los Angeles County’s Guaranteed Income Program, which is currently the largest in the nation. In less than a year, 30 county elected officials have joined the movement.
To read the report, click here.
by Peter Knight | Dec 19, 2023 | News, Research
Abstract: “What would be the consequences of a long-term commitment to provide everyone enough money to meet their basic needs? We examine this hotly debated issue in the context of a unique eld experiment in rural Kenya. Communities receiving UBI experienced substantial economic expansion|more enterprises, higher revenues, costs, and net revenues|and structural shifts, with the expansion concentrated in the non-agricultural sector. Labor supply did not change overall, but shifted out of wage employment and towards self-employment. We also compare the effects to those of shorter-term transfers delivered either as a stream of small payments or a large lump sum. The lump sums had similar, if not larger, economic impacts, while the short-term transfers had noticeably smaller effects, despite having delivered the same amount of capital to date. These results are consistent with a simple model of forward-looking lumpy investment, and more generally with a role for savings constraints, credit constraints, and some degree of (locally) increasing returns, among other factors.”
Read a summary of the report.
Read the full report.
by Peter Knight | Dec 6, 2023 | News, Research
Ireland’s Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin TD, has today welcomed the publication of the first reports compiled from data collected as part of the Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) pilot scheme.
Read more here.
The first Impact Assessment (6-month) of the Basic Income Pilot Scheme is also published today and is available here.
by Peter Knight | Dec 5, 2023 | News
“Imagine a world where not a single child has to grow up in poverty.
This vision may not be as far off as one might imagine. A new study by Abt Associates shows how guaranteed income pilots improve children’s wellbeing and strengthened families.
The paper, titled “My kids deserve the world”: How children in the Southeast benefit from guaranteed income, uses qualitative data from MGI mayor-led guaranteed income pilots in four Southern U.S. cities: Atlanta, GA, Birmingham, AL, Louisville, KY, and Shreveport, LA. Researchers identified five key benefits:
- Providing for Basic Needs
- Better Educational Outcomes and Children’s Development
- Work-Life Balance
- Enrichment, Parent-Child Bonding, and Parental Confidence
- Parents’ Mental Health”
Read the summary here.
Read the full report here.
