by Peter Knight | May 2, 2025 | News
“Oakland Resilient Families began with former Mayor Libby Schaaf’s pledge to bring a guaranteed income pilot to Oakland when she joined Mayors for a Guaranteed Income as a founding mayor in the summer of 2020. With an intentional focus on groups with the greatest wealth disparities per the Oakland Equity Index, Oakland Resilient Families provided 600 randomly selected families with low incomes and one or more children under 18 with a guaranteed income of $500 per month for 18 months. Researchers found improvements in housing security, increased employment rates, better mental well-being and more parental engagement in children’s school.”
To read the report, click here.
by Diana Bashur | Apr 29, 2025 | Events, News
With endorsement from 70 of its affiliates and partner organizations from over 30 countries, BIEN has submitted the following inputs to the office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights seeking inputs for the Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth. In our submission, we propose policy actions for development contexts that we trust can help operationalize the promises of transformational Basic Income schemes.
BIEN highly values previous reports from the Office of the Special Rapporteur, which consistently highlight the relevance of Basic Income for this Office’s mandate. We hope this submission provides insightful material to the Special Rapporteur’s report to the UN Human Rights Council and that this will be the start of a dialogue and collaboration towards our shared goal of more just societies.
To read the submission, click here.
by John Michael | Apr 20, 2025 | Events, News
Basic Income Training 2025 (BIT 2025) is a three-day event dedicated to fostering critical discussions, collaborative learning, and practical design around the concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) in Indonesia. Held from April 25 to 27, 2025, this intensive training brings together keynote speakers, guest experts, and participants from diverse sectors to examine UBI from multiple perspectives, ranging from theoretical foundations to concrete local pilot initiatives.
This training is proudly organized through the collaboration of several key institutions: IndoBIG Network, BIEN Asia Pacific, Perbanas Institute, Yayasan Perbanas, the Indonesian Economic Scholars Association (ISEI), INFID, RPK, and Kitabisa. Their joint commitment reflects Indonesia’s growing momentum toward reimagining social protection and economic justice. The synergy among these organizations makes BIT 2025 not only a training event but also the starting point of a broader movement.
The sessions are structured to deepen participants’ understanding and engagement. The opening day features welcoming remarks and keynote presentations, followed by discussions on global case studies of the basic income movement. On the second day, speakers will explore the significance of UBI for Indonesia’s socio-economic context and guide participants in designing locally grounded UBI pilot projects. The third day shifts toward forward-looking strategies, focusing on building an actionable roadmap for UBI advocacy. More than a one-time gathering, BIT 2025 will be followed by a series of workshops and the initiation of experimental UBI pilot projects, ensuring that the ideas cultivated during the training evolve into real, actionable programs on the ground.
Please find more details here.
by Peter Knight | Apr 16, 2025 | News
June 17 – June 18
2 Days in Washington DC
Join the basic income community in June as we come together in Washington DC to chart the course for the critical next wave of our movement. Together, we will develop and coordinate the strategies and processes needed to meet the challenges we face with new political leadership and changes to the policy and funding landscape. Join Us
The Basic Income Guarantee Conference (BIG!) is the only annual conference in the U.S. focused on all things basic income. In June, 2025 we will be celebrating our 23rd event, which will include collaborative sessions, panel discussions, interactive activities and more, as we dig deep into the most critical issues we face as a society, and a movement. Join Us
Read more and register
by Dániel Fehér | Apr 16, 2025 | News
A groundbreaking three-year study in Germany has delivered compelling evidence challenging common criticisms of Universal Basic Income (UBI), showing no reduction in work effort while significantly improving mental health and wellbeing.
The Pilotprojekt Grundeinkommen, conducted by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) in collaboration with the Vienna University of Economics and German NGO Mein Grundeinkommen, gave 107 participants €1,200 monthly for three years with no strings attached. Unlike other UBI pilots, this study was entirely privately funded through donations collected by Mein Grundeinkommen, allowing researchers to design an experiment that wouldn’t reduce participants’ existing government benefits.
From over two million applicants, researchers selected approximately 1,700 individuals aged 21-40 living in single-person households with monthly net incomes between €1,100-2,600. From this pool, 107 were randomly assigned to receive the basic income, while the remaining 1,580 formed the control group. Data was collected through semi-annual surveys over the entire three-year period from June 2021 to May 2024, with impressive retention rates—80% of the control group participated throughout the study’s entire duration.
Key Findings Challenge Critics
The most significant finding contradicts the “welfare dependency” argument often used against UBI. “Recipients didn’t withdraw from the labor market or significantly reduce their working hours. This challenges the ‘social hammock’ stereotype that people would stop working if given unconditional money,” explains Jürgen Schupp, scientific lead from DIW Berlin.
Instead of inducing laziness, the cash transfers enabled responsible financial decisions. Recipients saved approximately 37% of the payments and directed around 7% toward charitable causes or supporting family and friends.
Mental Health Benefits Equivalent to Therapy
Perhaps most striking were the substantial improvements in wellbeing. The study documented improvements in mental health by 0.347 standard deviations, purpose in life by 0.250 SD, and life satisfaction by 0.417 SD.
“I was particularly impressed by how UBI positively affected mental health – the effect is comparable to therapy! This is especially relevant after COVID” notes Miriam Witz, project lead at Mein Grundeinkommen.
Autonomy and Pro-Social Effects
The study revealed a pattern of increased social connection and autonomy among recipients. Participants spent more time with friends while maintaining their working hours and reported greater control over their lives.
“The strongest effects were in autonomy and what we call the ‘gender effect’ – the more dependent someone is in society, the stronger the basic income effect. There’s a strong correlation between mental health and dependency structures,” Witz explains.
The Future of UBI Research in Germany
The research team is already planning next steps. “On May 1st, we’re launching a new €500,000 basic income lottery which will also be researched. We’re commissioning a potential analysis of what UBI would mean macroeconomically for society in light of our study’s findings – without false assumptions like decreased work activity,” says Witz.
Schupp adds, “While a basic income isn’t currently on the political agenda, I believe that for the urgently needed restructuring of social systems, all reform options must be considered – including universal basic income.”
Witz, who didn’t begin as a UBI advocate, says the experience changed her perspective: “I’ve come to believe that the ability to say ‘no’ is very important in our society. We need an instrument that enables as many people as possible to be involved in decision-making processes – and in capitalism, that prerequisite is money.”
The findings align with other research showing that financial security, social connection, and autonomy are fundamental to mental health and wellbeing, suggesting that basic income could be a valuable tool for building resilience in modern societies.
This article is based on an interview for Unconditional Basic Income Europe conducted by Dániel Fehér.
More about the study and its results:
Sandra Bohmann, Susann Fiedler, Maximilian Kasy, Jürgen Schupp and Frederik Schwerter: Cash Transfers, Mental Health, and Agency: Evidence from an RCT in Germany (Preliminary research paper)
Sandra Bohmann, Susann Fiedler, Maximilian Kasy, Jürgen Schupp and Frederik Schwerter: Pilotprojekt Grundeinkommen: kein Rückzug vom Arbeitsmarkt, aber bessere mentale Gesundheit (DIW Wochenbericht 15 / 2025, S. 221-229)
Pilotprojekt Grundeinkommen (in German)
Blog in English
