by Courtney Hallink | Apr 20, 2020 | News
The Dutch government has implemented a new programme for self-employed individuals who have suffered a loss of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic – the Temporary bridging measure for self-employed professionals (Tozo). The new arrangement entitles individuals who are self-employed to up to 1050 Euros per month for single individuals or up to 1500 Euros per month for couples for a total of three months.
After the 2008 financial crisis, thousands of individuals who applied for unemployment benefits – known as Bijstand – had to sell their homes before they were able to qualify. A notable feature of the new arrangement is that an individual’s eligibility is not reliant on whether or not they own a house or have any other assets. This is seen as a step forward for those would like to see the adoption of a Basic Income in the Netherlands.
The new arrangement does not, however, meet the criteria for a Basic Income for a number of reasons. BIEN’s definition of a basic income is a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirements. Under BIEN’s definition, a Basic Income has five key criteria: it is unconditional of income, there is no work requirement, it is individual, it is universal, and it is periodic.
It does not meet the first requirement as the new programme only includes individuals whose monthly income has fallen under the national minimum. It meets the second criterion in that there is no work requirement. It does not meet the third, fourth or fifth requirements as it is not individual (as less is paid to individuals in a couple) or universal, and it will only be provided temporarily. It is however quite generous as it is in line with the living wage.
While the new arrangement does not meet BIEN’s UBI criteria, it has helped to give UBI supporters the footing they need to push the Basic Income agenda further. Alexander de Roo, member of the Green Party and chairman of the Basic Income Network Netherlands, has written an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Rutte, calling for the adoption of a temporary UBI in response to COVID-19 and a permanent UBI to be implemented after the general election in March 2021.
The open letter referred to in this article can be found here. (Readers might wish to be aware that ‘Basisinkomen’ as used in this letter does not always accord with BIEN’s definition of Basic Income)
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by Giulia Traversi | Apr 20, 2020 | News
Canada is taking measures to face the Covid-19 pandemic. The situation requires, together with radical and fast actions in medical terms, radical and fast actions in economic and social terms.
The introduction of a Basic Income has been a topic for years in Canada and with the current crisis, it is showing even more possible benefits. While one can always approach a private money lender for emergencies, having a basic income can better sort the situation.
On the 18 March the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced the federal response to the crisis: a $82 billion relief plan which allocates $27 billion in direct support and $55 billion to help businesses liquidity through tax deferrals. So far, the Opposition parties have been supportive, especially the New Democratic Party which is pushing the Government for more generous and comprehensive measures.
The Canada’s Covid-19 Economic Response Plan includes a temporary boost to Canada’s Child Benefit payments, a new emergency Care Benefit to provide income support to workers, the Canada emergency response Benefit (CERB) and other targeted measures. The CERB is a monthly payment of 2000$ a month for a period of 4 months that will go to any worker who earned at least 5000$ in the past 12 months and has suddenly lost their job as a result of the pandemic. The Government has estimated that more than 2 million Canadians will receive a temporary Basic Income through the CERB. Understandably, Basic Income advocates have stressed the desirability of a more universal approach, as opposed to the long list of targeted measures such as those above, which can represent a cost in terms of classifying the beneficiaries due to long and sometimes bureaucratic processes. They have pressed for keeping a Basic Income model which can last after the pandemic is over, because Covid-19 will probably not be the last major setback to the Canadian economy. The next time it could be the shock from climate crisis or technological unemployment.
The CERB is not the first measure something like a Basic Income that Canada has experienced. An experiment called a Basic Income pilot was introduced in April 2017 by Kathleen Wynne’s liberal Government. The program consisted in monthly payments for 4000 randomly chosen individuals living under the poverty line, without work conditions, in three communities in Ontario. The program, originally stated to be for 3 years, ended prematurely, but showed interesting effects: the majority of the people who had low wage jobs before the trial remained in the workforce. Many went back to school, and mental health improved. The payments were like a Basic income in that they were not work-tested, but because they were income-tested and based on the structure of the household, the experiment was not a Basic Income pilot experiment.
The Basic Income Canada Network has proposed some options for Canada: among them there is cash transfer based on household income for 18-64 year olds people, of $22.000 per year ($31.113 for a couple) that decrease gradually as other income increases. This would be similar to the Ontario experiment, and so not strictly a Basic Income, but the report does model a fully individual, universal basic income option.
The time for Basic Income may have come and Governments around the world are implementing measures to address the financial fallout of the Covid-19 crisis. To many, a Basic Income – regular payments to individuals that are not work-tested or means-tested – may sound radical, but it might be the most rational thing the Government can do for Canadians.
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by Leire Rincon | Apr 19, 2020 | Opinion
Cash-for-corona: why the current policy proposal being discussed in Spain has nothing to do with a universal basic income
This article was updated on the 19th April 2020
Since the outbreak of coronavirus and the subsequent social and economic lockdown, there have been numerous appeals from economists, journalists, public figures and policy makers, that the time was ripe for the implementation of a universal basic income. However, the media and public discussion of the imminent need for a universal basic income does not resonate with the measures which are currently being discussed for implementation to tackle the economic crisis derived from the coronavirus pandemic.
In Spain, there has been recent discussion to implement a minimum living income (ingreso minimo vital, IMV, in spanish) as a means of alleviating the economic downturn that is approaching. Some media outlets (see for instance the posts in Bloomberg, the independent, Business Insider, The Local, or Forbes) have used the concept of a universal basic income, instead of a minimum income, to repot the current policy proposals being discussed in Spain. The term basic income was even used by a Spanish journalist in an interview with the third Vice-president of the Spanish government, Nadia Calviño, when she asked her about the minimum income policy that is currently being discussed.
The media’s inaccurate portrayal of Spain’s minimum income policy is not only causing confusion amongst the general population or public opinion, but is also misleading political leaders. Some British members of parliament for instance have tweeted about the possibility that Spain will be introducing a universal basic income. See for instance, Rebecca Long Bailey, sharing the Morning Star’s news post, Douglas Chapman’s tweet, or Dr Philippa Whitford, sharing the Independent’s post.
Despite the media’s insistence in using the label of a basic income, the current policy in question is far from a universal and unconditional policy as such. Although the Spanish government is still considering the implementation details, Minister of Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivà confirmed in a recent interview that this policy is a minimum income to be targeted to vulnerable households, and the generosity will be dependent on the the family typology (mono-marental households will receive more generous quantities) and upon the number of number of children. In a recent article by La Vanguardia, the quantity has been stipulated as for 500 euros for individuals living by themselves, and up to 1000 euros for families with children. Currently, the ministry is working in the elaboration of household typologies and calculating how many households would be eligible for such benefit. However, although the generosity has not been defined still, it is known that this measure will not be temporary but permanent, as a last resort safety net that is more durable than other types of benefits.
This is a non-contributory cash payment, which adds to current policies in different ways: those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits can have access to it, and those who are not eligible for unemployment benefits will have access to it if they comply with other criteria. Very importantly, in principle this is a permanent measure, so it is not exhausted until the recipient is employed. Such a design is convenient to target particular vulnerable groups of people like domestic workers without contracts, or self-employed people who have seen their activity come to a halt. According to calculus made by the minister of employment, Yolanda Diaz, this measure could benefit a total of 5 million people, which is close to 10% of the Spanish population.
Although it adds to current policies in several ways, this is far from a basic income in various ways as it is not individual, unconditional or universal, which are three of the key characteristics of the so called universal basic income policy that some media outlets are are using to label the future policy that will be implemented in Spain. Quite on the contrary, the type of policy being discussed is a non-contributory last resort benefit that will go to the most vulnerable households, and precisely, will be given to households and not individuals, closer to current non-contributory pensions than a basic income, as summarised in the table below:-
Characteristics
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IMV (current proposal being discussed in Spain)
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Basic Income
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Universal
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No
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Yes
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Unconditional
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No: the aid is conditional on the number of children, previous income, household typology
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Yes
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Cash payment
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Yes
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Yes
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Individual
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No: households; currently elaborating a household typology and calculating the number of households that will be covered
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Yes
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Non-contributory
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Yes
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Yes
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Not only a cash-for-corona policy
The minimum living income currently on the political agenda in Spain is not a unique response to coronavirus. The implementation of such a policy was part of the governmental agreement signed between the two coalition parties PSOE and Podemos, already in 2019, as specified in article 2.4.2. of this document. In this scenario, there was an estimation of 600 euros per person, with some households reaching to a top 1,200 euros and with an approximate cost of 10.000 million euros. During an interview in early April, in La Sexta channel, the third Vice-president, Nadia Calviño announced that the introduction of the IMV that is currently being discussed was intended as a pilot of the policy that was agreed upon in the governmental agreement in 2019. In this sense, regardless of the shape that this policy takes now, its implementation is intended to be structural and with a permanent character.
Yet another re-appropriation of the UBI label
Once more however, the media response has been to appropriate the name of universal basic income to label policies that are far from it. In fact, the whole package of policies that comprise the government’s emergency response to the coronavirus resonate with the same targeted and means-tested logic of welfare state comprised of a patchwork of benefits to cover different needs, with many individuals falling through the cracks. The government has already implemented the ERTEs (temporary regulation expedients of employment), in order to prevent mass unemployment, a moratorium on mortgages, a fiscal moratorium for self-employed workers, with benefits for those who have seen their activity massively reduced, and, which belong to the same rhetoric of a patchwork of programs rather than an effective safety net without any cracks, like universal basic income. due to the complexity of the different conditions’ individuals face and are not captured by the all the series of programs and administrative processes.
Political process
This emergency policy took speed yesterday, in ameeting between Pablo Iglesias, Yolanda Diaz -Minister of Employment-, Jose Luis Escrivà -Ministerof Inclusion, Social security and Mogration- and key interest group representatives in Spain, including NGOs like Oxfam, Cáritas, Facua or Cermi, trade unions like CCOO and UGT, although key business organisations like the CEOE did not participate. There is another meeting which has been scheduled for today (10th April 2020) with the Minister of Employment, in which the CEOE has refused to participate. However, Pablo Iglesias had been in contact telephonically with key business and banking sector figures who spoke positively of this measure, and had also been in contact with Antonio Garamendi, CEOE’s president, with whom he had exchanged some documentation.
Emergency minimum living income – latest update 19th April 2020
Given that the implementation of the proposed IMV would take around three months, the government has been working to implement a ‘bridge’ minimum living income (IMVP given its acronym in Spanish), which would be a temporal and emergency measure to be implemented as soon as possible, to be expected in May, as announced on the 16th of april . This emergency IMVP will consist of 500 euros per households, and up to 950€ depending on the number of children, for those with lower incomes than 200 euros if they live by themselves, and lower than 450 if living with one person or more. The benefit generosity will be higher for those with children under their charge. The government has announced that while this measure is temporary it will remain in place until the approval of the permanent IMV, which has been estimated to last for about 3 months.
In a recent interview, Escrivà argued that this policy would arrive to one million households, up to 3 million individuals, with 10% of the households being mono-marental (N.B.: he called them monoparental). Importantly, he argued that this benefit would not be lost automatically once the recipient finds employment, but rather, when their economic situation is stabilised, being compatible with the recipients’ wage for sometime.
The limitations of such a policy
Although the details are yet not clear, it is evident that this policy is far from a basic income, and much further away of combating poverty in Spain. According to the latest report by the European Network against Poverty and Social Exclusion, only in 2019, there were 12,3 million of individuals at risk of poverty or social exclusion. However, this measure will not be getting to more than 3 or 4 million of individuals.
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by Gabriela Cabana | Apr 15, 2020 | News
Following the trend of other countries, the Chilean government announced in March an emergency package; with a one-time bonus of $60 approximately designed to cover the income loss of 60% of the most vulnerable population as well as the possibility of accessing the unemployment insurance by those (formal) workers that will not be dismissed but will stop receiving their salary during the pandemic. On April 7th, as a response to this initial package, the opposition joined and proposed what they called an ’emergency basic income’ for “everyone who has seen their income cut due to the sanitary emergency” giving priority to workers and their families “to live with dignity”.
A truly universal emergency basic income has not yet been proposed by any politician. Nevertheless, in January, a project for a constitutional reform that would guarantee every citizen a basic income was proposed in parliament but has not been discussed. While Chile has postponed its referendum on the need to write a new constitution from April to October this year; the proposal is expected to set a precedent for the coming constitutional process.
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