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
VIDEO: Karl Widerquist on US poverty and basic income
Karl Widerquist, BIEN co-chair and co-founder of Basic Income News, was interviewed on a TRT World program, The Newsmakers, as part of a special segment on poverty.
Paul Mason on Post-Capitalism and Universal Basic Income
British journalist and broadcaster Paul Mason, author of Post-Capitalism: A Guide to Our Future, recently delivered a lecture in Amsterdam in which he points out the need for a universal basic income as a partial solution to changes in the economy due to new technologies.
GOA, INDIA: Mining reform group releases Manifesto, calls for citizen’s dividend
The Goenchi Mati Movement advocates for the reform of mining practices in the Indian state of Goa. Among its proposals is the investment of all money from iron ore mining into a permanent fund, which would be used to finance a citizen’s dividend, similar to Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend.
Malcolm Torry, “How might we implement a citizen’s income?”
Malcolm Torry, director of the UK’s Citizen’s Income Trust (CIT) and co-secretary of BIEN, has prepared a report on implementing a citizen’s income (i.e. a basic income for UK citizens) for the Institute for Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW).
Re-inventing social security
The conditional character of the current social security system limits freedom to work.
Christian Engström, “A concrete and financed proposal for basic income in Sweden”
Former MEP Christian Engström has written a “concrete proposal” for a basic income guarantee in Sweden. Originally published online only in Swedish, Engström’s paper is now available in English.
NEW LINK: Livinggrant
Tim Rourke, who has been writing about basic income in Canada for over two decades, has a new blog dedicated to Basic Income. Read it here: https://blog.livingrant.ch/2016/09/08/a-position-on-the-ontario-basic-income-pilot-project/ Photo: CC
BIEN Celebrates Thirty Years: Basic income, a utopia for our times?
On Saturday October 1st 2016, the Basic Income Earth Network celebrated its 30th anniversary at the Catholic University of Louvain.
UGANDA: Two-year basic income pilot set to launch in 2017
Eight, a charitable organization based in Belgium, is preparing to run a basic income pilot in Uganda (as previously announced in Basic Income News). The two-year pilot is set to launch in January 2017, and will form the basis for a documentary.
Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg, “Employment or Income Guarantees: Which Would Do the Better Job?”
Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg, Professor Emerita of Social Work at Adelphi University, evaluates the relative merits of income guarantees and job guarantees in a recent article for the journal New Labor Forum.
Vijay Joshi, “Universal Basic Income is worth fighting for, even against the long odds in its implementation”
The economist Vijay Joshi, Emeritus Fellow at Oxford, has published India’s Long Road to Prosperity, in which he argues in favor of a universal basic income in India. More recently, Joshi summarized his position in a post at the Economic Times Blog.
Clearing the Playing Field: Trump’s Crisis Creates Opportunity for Universal Basic Income in the United States
With Donald Trump in charge of the executive in the United States, Republican majorities in the House and Senate, and a conservative judicial system, the time seems to have come for serious reorganization of American social welfare programs.