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
BIEN Stories: Richard Caputo
Richard K. Caputo (Professor of Social Work) My colleague Professor Vicki Lens recommended that I check out the US Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network which was planning its first annual Congress for March 8-9, 2002 in New York City. Professor Lens was familiar...
BIEN Stories: Michael Howard
Michael Howard (Coordinator of US Basic Income Guarantee Network) I can remember the moment when I first took a keen interest in basic income. I was familiar with the idea, having spent a research leave at the European University Institute in Fiesole, when Philippe...
BIEN Stories: José A. Noguera
José A. Noguera (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, International Advisory Board of BIEN) I still remember quite clearly the first time I read something about the idea of a Basic Income (BI): it was back in 1991, when I was finishing my degree in Sociology in...
BIEN Stories: Martine Mary Waltho
Martine Mary Waltho (BIEN Life Member) - "My Basic Income Journey" I first came across the idea of a basic income when I was at university in 1984. There was an article in a magazine; it might have been the New Society. It was written by a man who used to be a...
BIEN Stories: Toru Yamamori
Photo taken by Stefan Pangritz at a solidarity meeting for the Swiss referendum in January 2014 in Basel. Toru Yamamori (Basic Income News editor) 1. Encounter to the idea My encounter to the idea of a basic income was around 1991-2. I was involved...
BIEN Stories: Hyosang Ahn
Hyosang Ahn (Permanent Director of BIKN) "Emancipation and Basic Income" The first time I encountered the idea of basic income was the summer of 2007. I was at the time the vice president of a small party on the left, rather imaginatively named the Socialist Party,...
AUDIO: Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz addresses UBI on the Ezra Klien Show
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz was the featured guest on The Ezra Klein Show on October 25, 2016. Although the basic income was not the focal point of the 70 minute interview, Klein did ask Stiglitz whether he favors a UBI in the United States.
Interview: Telekom CEO Timotheus Höttges on Digitization and Basic Income
Timotheus Höttges, CEO of the multibillion dollar telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom, argues in favor of unconditional basic income in an interview in the German business newspaper Handelsblatt.
ITALY: Basic Income Pilot Launched in Italian Coastal City
Filippo Nogarin, the mayor of the Italian coastal city of Livorno who launched an initiative to provide a guaranteed basic income to the city’s 100 poorest families in June 2016, is poised to extend the program in the beginning of 2017. A member of the...
VIDEO: Campfire Convention panel “Universal Basic Income: A Utopian Vision or a Viable Reality?”
The inaugural Campfire Convention took place in August 12-14, 2016, in the English countryside. It featured a keynote address from Brian Eno, in addition to an array of panel discussions, music performances, and other events. One panel discussion was on UBI.
SWITZERLAND: Guy Standing to present on Basic Income at Davos
The 2017 Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum is to include a panel on basic income, in which BIEN’s Guy Standing will be participating.
KELTY, SCOTLAND: “Basic Income: Real Social Security” (Jan 28)
BIEN’s Scottish affiliate, Citizen’s Basic Income Network Scotland (CBINS), will be holding a public event in Kelty, a town in Fife, on Saturday, January 28.