A Basic Income is a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement.
The Royal Society of Arts Explains: [2 minutes]

Recent News, Opinion, and Research
Conservative Carbon Dividend Proposal is a Welcome Development for Introduction of Partial Basic Income
The Climate Leadership Council just put forth a proposal for a carbon fee and dividend, as a key policy to combat climate change. The authors are conservatives, including Republican former Secretaries of State James Baker and George Schultz, Treasury Secretary Henry...
US: Prominent Republicans call for carbon tax and dividend
A group of prominent Republicans has released a proposal for a carbon tax and dividend as an alternative to the Obama administration’s regulation-based approach to mitigating climate change.
Che Wagner, “The Swiss Universal Basic Income Vote 2016: What’s Next?”
In analyzing the voting results along with representative surveys asking voters why they voted for/against UBI, we learn about how much it matters how we speak about UBI and in what context of contemporary society.
UK: Labour Party sets up working group to investigate UBI
John McDonnell, Labour MP and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK, has revealed that the Labour Party has established a working group to investigate universal basic income. Guy Standing, cofounder of BIEN, will play a key role in drafting their report.
Activists launch project for a global Basic Income for Refugees
ReCivitas, known for its ongoing pilot in the village of Quatinga Velho, has launched a new initiative: a basic income for refugees as the first step toward a global basic income.
FRANCE: French minister Ségolène Royal backs Hamon’s basic income proposal
The French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, Ségolène Royal, has expressed some support for Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon’s basic income proposal, and noted that the idea has been “unjustly caricatured”. As recently covered by Basic Income...
UNITED KINGDOM: David Piachaud Calls Basic Income a Wasteful Distraction from Other Methods of Tackling Poverty
David Piachaud, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and an associate of The Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE), published a discussion paper on Citizens’ Income (CI) in December of last year. Abstract: A Citizen’s...
GOA, INDIA: Goenchi Mati Movement gains political support
In the run-up to the Goa Assembly Elections that took place on 4 February, the Goenchi Mati Movement (GMM), which advocates for mining reform to fund a citizen’s dividend, gained the support of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Goa Su-Raj Party (GSRP). Its work was...
JAPAN: Radio program on universal basic income tonight
TBS radio, one of the major nationwide radio channels in Japan, will tonight broadcast a live discussion on basic income. TBS radio’s daily program ‘Session 21’, whose main anchor is critic Chiki Ogiue, will host a discussion on UBI at 22.45 local time (GMT+9),...
Korea: New presidential candidate promises universal basic income
Mayor Lee Jae-myung. Credit to: Pangyo Techno Valley. On December 9, 2016, the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea voted to impeach Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal with her lifelong friend Choi Soon-sil. Due to the impeachment, the next...
Julie Wark and Daniel Raventós: “Why don’t Trade Unions support an UBI (precisely when they should)?”
(Picture credit: Counterpunch) In this article Julie Wark and Daniel Raventós write about why the trade unions do not support an unconditional basic income when “properly understood and administered, basic income could have enormously positive consequences”. Prior to...
AUDIO: Universal Basic Income – Has its time come?
This twenty-seven-minute audio broadcast from BBC World Service is dedicated to discussing basic income, on general terms, and has been played for the first time on the 20th of November, 2016. The discussion is chaired by Ed Butler, who has invited Louise Haagh...