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]
BIEN Congresses
The 24th BIEN CONGRESS in Maricá & Niterói – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 27-29 August 2025
Linkedin, Instagram, X – biencongress25 (at) gmail [dot] com
BIEN2024 was August 29–31 (Pictures and more coming soon)
Recent News, Opinion, and Research
Finland’s basic income never failed, our ‘jobs’ did
Basic income skeptics should consider which system failed when confronted with the current avalanche of suicide, descent into addiction, and hungry mouth these twin crises have created.
Brazilian Emergency Workers Aid: the short-term response that exposes a structural problem.
When, at the end of February 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was registered in Brazil, unemployment, job insecurity and poverty were already very well established in the Brazilian social structure. In January 2020, the rate of unemployment among the Brazilian...
The Prehistory of Private Property: A video introduction to the new book by Karl Widerquist and Grant McCall
This short video introduces the new book, The Prehistory of Private Property, by Grant McCall and me. The book examines the origin and development of the private property rights system and the experiences of peoples who have lived in other systems to debunk three...
Report published about the Scottish Basic Income pilot project feasibility study
The group studying the desirability and feasibility of a Basic Income pilot project in Scotland has published its final report. "PARTNERS involved in exploring the feasibility of a Citizens’ Basic Income (CBI) pilot in Scotland have completed the draft final report on...
BIEN’s new website
BIEN has a new website. We hope you like it. It's designed to be easy to navigate. The main menu has just three items: 'Home', 'About Basic Income', and 'Frequently asked questions'. Anyone wanting more information can click the 'news', 'opinion', 'research',...
The United States, Basic Income, and Covid
The second in a series of zoomcasts has now been published. https://youtu.be/wMVhfSN-Rfs Unprecendented unemployment figures in the United States of America in the wake of COVID-19 require a new type of response - Is Universal Basic Income the answer? Karl Widerquist...
A new video about Basic Income from Share Ideas
Share Ideas has published a new video about Basic Income. https://youtu.be/ttjMC7Diz9s A Basic Income is an unconditional income paid to every individual. It’s as simple as that. It has a number of different names: Citizen’s Income, Basic Income, Citizen’s Basic...
COVID19 in Argentina. Situation and public policy responses.
By Corina Rodríguez Enríquez and Rubén Lo Vuolo Argentina presented the first confirmed case of Covid19 in the first days of March. On the 20th of that month, the national government ordered the Compulsory Social Isolation (ASO) of the entire population, the...
Obituary: Lieselotte Wohlgenannt
Lieselotte Wohlgenannt died in Bregenz (Austria) on the 29th of May 2020. Born in 1931, Lieselotte was one of Europe’s first prominent advocates of basic income. After studying in Bregenz and Paris and spending ten years working for the catholic school network in the...
Emergency Basic Income in Tuvalu
Tuvalu, a country in Polynesia, in the Pacific Ocean, has implemented an Emergency Basic Income for its population of 11,000. Source: Social Protection and Jobs Responses to COVID-19: A Real-Time Review of Country Measures, by Ugo Gentilini (WB), Mohamed Almenfi (WB),...
In Solidarity with Black and Brown Americans: How UBI Offers a Path Forward
With more climate and pandemic crises on the horizon, how long will it take elites to realize that this economic system threatens the rise of violent populism?
Covid-19 and Financial Aid Programmes in Turkey
After starting in China, Covid-19 pandemic affected more countries around the world. In Turkey, the first Covid-19 case announced officially on 10th of March 2020. After the first case in short period schools, universities stopped teaching and converted their...