BIEN Founders Meetup – July 16
BIEN Members are invited to meet the Founders who established BIEN 34 years ago. PDF Invitation coming soon to this page with Zoom link and times at various locations.
New Report on Tackling Poverty in the UK Published by Basic Income Conversation
The Basic Income Conversation is an initiative, powered by Compass, to promote the idea of a universal basic income in the UK. The report can be accessed here.
This is the report summary:
“This report examines the distributive impacts of three UBI schemes which raise the income floor to different heights and are broadly designed to provide a potential pathway to attainment of the Minimum Income Standard, MIS. The first is a starter scheme to provide an entry payment; the second an intermediate scheme and the third a full MIS payment to which increases in less generous schemes can be aimed over time. We use microsimulation of data from the Family Resources Survey to outline the static distributive impacts and costs of the schemes.
Our key finding is that a modest, fiscally neutral, scheme has the capacity to cut child poverty to an historic low, below the low point achieved in the 1970s, thus achieve more than the anti-poverty interventions of the New Labour Governments from 2000. Even a modest scheme would significantly improve the living standards and life chances of millions of people and, despite the claims made by some critics of UBI, would be both feasible and affordable. This helps to answer the central practical criticism of introducing a basic income, that the payment levels are either too small to make much difference or too generous to be affordable.”
The BIG Conference 20th Annual Program
In a few short weeks, June 23-25, the biggest annual North American event for basic income will be taking place: the 20th Annual Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) Conference! Click for access to registration, the full program and more information. June 23 and 24 sessions will be live in Portland, Oregon and the June 25 (Saturday) sessions will be virtual.
Whether you’re someone working in the economic justice space who wants to deepen their understanding of basic income policy or a grassroots advocate who is just starting to learn about basic income, this is an amazing opportunity to get plugged into the community and benefit from the knowledge of the past year’s incredible strides for direct cash.
GUARANTEED INCOME: A Primer for Funders
This primer was developed by the Asset Funders Network (AFN) to educate foundations, individual donors, and other funders about the ways in which guaranteed income and related cash-based policies not only strengthen low and moderate income communities and communities of color, but also build a healthy and more resilient economy for us all.
Guaranteed Income pilots have been increasing in number rapidly over the past few years. In early 2022, there were more than 90 demonstrations planned or in progress in the United States. The majority of these have relied primarily on philanthropic funding, although there is an increase in public funding, primarily through use of American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Most pilots are intended to help build support for a federal basic income, but are usually targeted on specific groups due to limitations in funding and support. Click here to access a webpage with a short presentation and links to a larger primer and the recording of a webinar held on 18 May 2022.
May/June 2022: FRIBIS Basic Income Workshop Series hosted by Karl Widerquist
Karl Widerquist is hosting a workshop series that will feature lectures by international guest speakers from the field of basic income research. Detailed Information and the Live-Stream-Link you can find below.
The series began on May 10 2022 with talks by Simon März, Jurgen De Wispelaere and Simon Birnbaum.
The next workshop will be held May 31 at at 16:00-18:00 German time (UTC+2) with talks by Paul Niehaus, Jurgen De Wispelaere, and Joe Crisp.
For details on the series, including dates, times, speakers, and YouTube stream links, click here.
BIEN Congresses
The 24th BIEN CONGRESS in Maricá & Niterói – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 27-29 August 2025
Linkedin, Instagram, X – biencongress25 (at) gmail [dot] com
BIEN2024 was August 29–31 (Pictures and more coming soon)