by Kate McFarland | Apr 25, 2017 | News
Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario, announced some long-awaited details of the Canadian province’s pilot study of guaranteed minimum income on Monday, April 24, 2017, including the locations, time-frame, and general design of the study.
The Government of Ontario is preparing a three-year test of a guaranteed minimum income in three regions: the city of Hamilton (southeastern Ontario, population around 537,000), Thunder Bay (northwestern Ontario, population around 108,000), and Lindsay (southeastern Ontario, population around 20,000).
Kathleen Wynne, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Premier of Ontario Photography
A press release issued on April 24 indicates that 4,000 individuals between ages 18 and 64 will be selected to participate in the study. According to Wynne, participation will be voluntary, but few other details concerning the selection of participants are currently available. Contrary to some initial speculations, it appears that the study will not include a saturation site.
Participants in the study will be assigned either to a control or treatment group. Those in the treatment group will be eligible for the following benefits, to be paid in cash:
- Up to $16,989 per year for a single person (with the amount reduced by 50% of the amount of any income earned on top of the benefit).
- Up to $24,027 per year for a couple (with the amount reduced by 50% of the amount of any income earned on top of the benefit).
- Up to an additional $6,000 per year for a person with a disability.
Although commonly called a “basic income pilot” — including by the Government of Ontario — the scheme to be tested bears several notable differences from a “basic income” as defined by BIEN. First, the amount of the transfer is not independent of household composition: couples will receive a smaller total amount than would two single individuals. Additionally, the amount of the transfer is not constant irrespective of means, but instead decreases with earned income. However, the scheme is importantly similar to a basic income in that receipt of the benefit is not conditional on any type of participation or work requirement (e.g. recipients do not need to demonstrate that they are working or looking for work) and in that no restrictions are placed on how recipients may spend the money received.
More details concerning the precise design of the study will follow, with the Ontario government stating that the province is partnering with Hamilton, Thunder Bay, and Lindsay to ensure that the pilot “is fair, effective, and scientifically valid.” The press release adds: “A third-party research consortium that will evaluate the study will be announced shortly. The province will form an advisory group with research and evaluation experts to ensure that the pilot is conducted with the utmost integrity, rigour and ethical standards.”
The pilot will begin in Hamilton and Thunder Bay later in the spring, and in Lindsay in the autumn.
Ontario’s plans for a pilot study of guaranteed income have been a topic of discussion in the basic income community since February 2016, when the province announced plans to fund a “Basic Income pilot” in its budget. Project advisor Hugh Segal, a former Canadian Senator, released the paper “Finding a Better Way: A Basic Income Pilot Project for Ontario” to serve as the focus of discussions on the design of the pilot in November 2016. Segal’s paper clarified that the study would most likely take the form of a negative income tax rather than a “demogrant” (commonly called a “basic income”) in which all subjects would receive a cash grant of uniform amount. Following the release of the extensive discussion paper, the provincial government held a series of public consultations, the results of which were published in March 2017.
Currently, Ontario is the only region in Canada that plans to conduct a pilot of a guaranteed minimum income, although the governments of other provinces, such as Quebec and Prince Edward Island, have also expressed considerable interest.
Watch Wynne’s announcement of Ontario’s experiment:
See also the News Release from the Government of Ontario: “Giving More People an Opportunity to Get Ahead and Stay Ahead: Ontario Basic Income Pilot to Launch in Thunder Bay, Hamilton and Lindsay” (April 24, 2017).
Reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan
Cover photo:Legislative Building for the Provincial Government of Ontario, CC BY-NC 2.0 Alan English CPA
by Genevieve Shanahan | Apr 18, 2017 | News
Eight are a Belgian charity running a basic income pilot in Uganda, previously covered in detail in Basic Income News. A web documentary following the two-year trial will be released in episodes, with the first two episodes now available on the organisation’s website.
The first episode introduces the village of Busibi, called “Village One” in the documentary. Further episodes will cover the launch of the basic income pilot and its effects. New episodes will be released each week for a total of 12 weeks. Following this web documentary, a longer film with different and more layered storylines will be released in late 2018 or early 2019.
While the long-term impacts of the basic income are yet to be seen, Eight report that they have already seen many positive effects, including increased school attendance, improved health, development of local business and increased democratic self-support within the village.
https://vimeo.com/212272708
Reviewed by Kate McFarland
Image and video used courtesy of Steven Janssens
Read more:
Kate McFarland, “UGANDA: Two-year basic income pilot set to launch in 2017”, November 20, 2016, Basic Income News
Kate McFarland, “UGANDA: New Two-Year Basic Income Pilot Project”, April 20, 2016, Basic Income News
by Kate McFarland | Apr 12, 2017 | News
In December 2016, the Legislative Assembly of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) unanimously agreed to “pursue a partnership with the federal government for the establishment of a universal basic income pilot project” in the province.
The federal government responded on April 6, 2017, offering “data to support P.E.I. in developing a pilot” but not mentioning financial assistance — without which P.E.I. is unlikely to initiate a pilot study. The letter came from Families, Children and Social Development Minister Jean Yves Duclos, who has himself expressed interest in the idea of a guaranteed minimum income (what is commonly called, in Canada, a “basic income”).
According to Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker, who proposed the initial motion to seek federal support, the update from Duclos is “very disappointing” and entails that “it’s unlikely we’re going to see any material change here.”
However, Bevan-Baker also said that P.E.I. would continue its efforts to seek support from the federal government and that, if no federal funding is offered, the province might look into a smaller scale pilot study in one community or region: “Of course I’d love to see it tip to tip, but you know, if we have to settle for something smaller that could be funded solely through the provincial treasury, then at least that would be something.”
Reference
Sarah MacMillan, “Update on basic-income effort ‘very disappointing’,” CBCNews, April 7, 2017.
Reviewed by Dawn Howard
Photo: Prince Edward Island Provincial Flag CC BY-NC 2.0 Jamie McCaffrey
by Guest Contributor | Apr 3, 2017 | News
Photo: Crowd of over 950 people at the West Midlands Citizens Assembly (credit: Ravi Subramanian).
Mayoral candidates in the West Midlands have been challenged to take a position on running a pilot study of basic income in the region.
On Wednesday, March 29, the two mayoral candidate frontrunners, Andy Street (Conservative) and Sion Simon (Labour), were asked at a Citizens UK Assembly of 1,000 people from across the region about a range of proposals to make families better off. A basic income pilot was one of these ideas.
The candidates and the audience heard testimony from Shantella Pinnock, a nursery manager who said that basic income would have helped her team to feed their families while they were in dispute over unpaid wages. Sara Monaghan, caseworker for the UNISON West Midlands Community branch, said that this was not an isolated incident but in fact something she has dealt with repeatedly.
Pinnock and Monaghan give testimony in favour of a Basic Income pilot in the West Midlands region. (Photo credit: Becca Kirkpatrick)
Simon agreed to all of the proposals put to him by Citizens UK, including the basic income pilot, which also features in his manifesto. Street did not make a commitment to the basic income pilot proposal, but did say, “I’m fascinated, interested in this, I want keep my mind open to it. Let’s see the research from elsewhere and then let’s work towards it.”
A pilot of basic income has already made it into the West Midlands People’s Plan, a local manifesto for the future mayor, which was developed from a series of listening workshops last summer. UNISON West Midlands region also included it in their 20-point manifesto for the mayor.
James Burn, the Green Party candidate, has made clear his support for a basic income pilot in the local media. Basic income has been a Green Party policy for over 30 years.
Elsewhere in the UK, the councils of Fife and Glasgow are currently exploring the feasibility of running basic income pilots.
Citizens UK is a non-partisan civil society alliance of faith, education, trade unions and community groups.
Reviewed by Kate McFarland and Russell Ingram
by Austin Douillard | Mar 27, 2017 | News
Village women. Credit to: Andrew Renneisen for The New York Times
GiveDirectly, a New York-based nonprofit, which activity has been covered in Basic Income News before, has initiated a pilot program in a rural village in Western Kenya, this past October. The organization recently published an internal analysis of the pilot program, in a first attempt to process the results of a GiveDirectly basic income project. The results will set the tone for future programs and influence basic income policy making moving forward.
The Pilot Program
The cash transfers are made via mobile phone to the village residents. Each of the 95 participants received 2,280 shillings (about US$22) every month to save or spend however they see fit. Participants are all guaranteed this income for the next 12 years. Before GiveDirectly began the payments, many people in the village were living on less than US$0.75 a day; afterwards, no one was. GiveDirectly’s analysis claimed that “for 45% of the village’s residents, the first month’s basic income payment was the largest amount of money they’d ever had.”
The Results
The organization recently published the qualitative results of the first study of the pilot program. The research was conducted through follow-up call center-based phone surveys, as well as small focus group conversations. The survey asked about the biggest difference the money has made in their lives. Some of their answers are below:
- “I will be getting transfers that will enable me to pay medical bills for my condition and also buy other things. Since I went for checkup after receiving the transfer, my health situation has improved and I am able to go about my business without much stress.” Grace, 68.
- “Since I have been able to improve on my business, I have gotten income to help me meet my daily expenses and also buy enough food for my children.” Diana, 33.
- “The biggest difference in my daily life is that I can have 3 meals in a day.” Dorcus, 87.
The survey also asked how the money was spent.
- “I spent the entire transfer received from GiveDirectly to purchase a fishing net and a floater.” Erick, 40.
- “I spent the money received from GiveDirectly to buy clean water, food, soap, and used most of the amount to pay school fees.” Fredrick, 70.
- “I spent most of the money I received from GiveDirectly on buying a goat since I want to buy livestock. I also bought food for my household.” Patrick, 38.
- “I spent the money received from GiveDirectly to purchase food and kept most of the transfer as savings.” Milka, 44.
Do recipients of basic income stop working? This question has been at the center of the basic income debate despite much of the evidence indicating that recipients don’t stop working, and don’t spend money on alcohol. Here are some of their responses:
- “I feel I need to work harder and engage in other income-generating activities to get more money.” Samson, 70.
- Yes, receiving the payments has changed my feeling towards work since I really want to finish my driving course and immediately look for employment.” Fredrick Odhiambo Awino, 28.
- “I will not be working since I am old and sickly. I will just wait for the transfers.” Jael, 73.
- “I will still continue with my small business and charcoal burning since the family needs the extra income to enable us to meet all our expenses without borrowing from relatives each time.” Norah, 30.
Villagers. Photo: Credit Andrew Renneisen for The New York Times
Another survey question asked about how the money will affect recipients’ decisions or attitudes around entrepreneurship or other risk taking, like migrating to look for work. GiveDirectly stated that “So far, seven recipients have indicated that they had plans to or had left the village to look for some form of work. On entrepreneurship, some recipients plan to use the cash transfers to expand existing businesses or start new ones, while others think they haven’t received enough money to start anything meaningful.”
- “There is a time I was selling maize, buying and selling but it collapsed but for now I know I will revive it because during that time we had a drought and so we consumed the maize.” Mixed gender focus group respondent.
- “I want to start a small ‘omena’ (small fish) business.” Caroline, 28.
- “I want to start a second-hand clothes selling business.” Millicent, 33.
- “Personally, I desire to start a business but it’s not easy to start one here. For example, if we do the same business, it gets difficult to get customers. We have to fight for the few that are available. We are not able to do business in far places. If you start one you can only do it within the village next to your house. Getting the capital is also difficult but we would wish to start businesses.” Women’s focus group respondent.
Another question was whether recipients would pool some of their money toward shared projects like building a well or repairing roads. GiveDirectly’s analysis said, “when we first explained the program, one of the community leaders suggested this at the village meeting, and it’s obviously on people’s minds, but we haven’t yet seen any large projects launched as a result.” This question is especially salient because not everyone in the village is receiving the basic income grant. In a New York Times article about this pilot program, Annie Lowry noted that this has been a source of tension in the village: “by giving money to some but not all, the organization had unwittingly strained the social fabric of some of these tight-knit tribal communities.” However, community projects that benefit everyone could ease this tension. One of the focus group respondents indicated that such projects are certain in the future:
- “We just started receiving this cash just the other day and after doing a few things with it in the house here, we can think of coming together as a village and we agree that we pool some cash together that we can use to do something, at the moment we have not started, but we will.”
GiveDirectly widely considers these results to be encouraging. It plans to continue fundraising to expand the number of recipients, and launch a full study later this year. This pilot is part of a larger plan in Kenya to offer similar unconditional transfers to people in 200 villages.
More information at:
Annie Lowry, “The future of not working”, The New York Times, February 23rd 2017
Catherine Cheney, “Early insights from the first field test of universal basic income”, Devex, February 27th 2017
David Evans, “Do the Poor Waste Transfers on Booze and Cigarettes? No”, The World Bank, May 27th 2014
Joe Huston and Caroline Teti, “What it’s like to receive a basic income”, GiveDirectly, February 23rd 2017
Kate McFarland, “US / KENYA: Charity GiveDirectly announces initial basic income pilot study”, Basic Income News, September 25th 2016
