After a strong social mobilization, Law 13.982 was published on April 2, 2020, creating the Emergency Workers’ Aid (EWA), an exceptional social protection measure to face the health emergency. (The EWA is sometimes called an Emergency Basic Income, but it ought not to be as it does not fulfil the definition of a Basic Income).
Although the text of the law tries to induce the idea that the benefit is intended exclusively for workers who have lost their source of income during the pandemic, in the end this is not an eligibility requirement, since the EWA reaches even those who have long been in a situation of economic vulnerability.
In sum, the EWA is a payment of R$ 600.00 (US$ 115.00) per month to the person over eighteen years old, who does not have an active formal job, is not the holder of another social security or welfare benefit (except for the Bolsa Família), has monthly per capita family income of up to half a minimum wage (R$ 522.50; US$ 100.00) or total monthly family income of up to three minimum wages (R$ 3,135.00; US$ 608.00) and has not earned income above the income tax exemption range in the 2018 fiscal year. No more than two people from each family may receive the benefit. The law also recognizes the condition of special vulnerability of the woman provider of a single-parent family, granting her the value equivalent to two quotas of the aid (R$ 1,200.00; US$ 230.00).
On May 14, Law 13,998/2020 made some changes to the EWA, among which is its extension to mothers under 18 years of age. Amendments that extended access to the benefit, mainly by withdrawing the requirement of proof of income in 2018, were vetoed by the President of the Republic after being approved by the National Congress.
As for its coverage, at the beginning of the implementation of the EWA the government estimated that it would reach 54 million people. However, after 2 months 107 million applications had been submitted, of which 59 million were approved and 42.2 million were considered ineligible.
It should be noted that implementation is facing serious problems on the part of the Government. This has motivated the Brazilian Basic Income Network, along with 161 other organizations that support the measure, to prepare a report about the 20 main obstacles to the implementation of the EWA , among which is the delay in analyzing the applications submitted and the denial of applications without providing a valid justification.
It should be noted that the law provides that the benefit may be extended by the President of the Republic while the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 lasts. However, the Government gives signs that, if it extends the EWA, it intends to do so with a monthly amount equivalent to one third of what is currently paid.
This whole context has raised to another level the public discussion about the importance of a right to income security and the respective public policy to ensure it, which transcends the conjunctural situation caused by the pandemic and leads several segments of society to seriously consider permanent policies, such as the Citizen’s Basic Income, approved by the Law 10.835/2004 with all the characteristics of a Universal Basic Income, but never fully implemented.
A local experiment
Maricá, a coastal town in the state of Rio de Janeiro, is experimenting with a local currency income-tested benefit for its own population. Articles about the experiment are available in both Portuguese and English. The articles use both ‘Universal Basic Income’ and ‘basic income guarantee’ terminology. Because the payments are only being paid to poorer households, and are therefore not a Basic Income, the use of this terminology is confusing. However, this is an important experiment, and it will be interesting to hear about its effects.
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), Pamela Dale (UNICEF), John Blomquist (WB), Harish Natarajan (WB), Guillermo Galicia (WB), Robert Palacios (WB), and Vyjayanti Desai (WB) (World Bank, 2020)
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 education to online system. Also midterms, final exams were converted to the online format. Most of the common activities were firstly postponed then many of them cancelled. Cafes, restaurants and shopping malls were shut down.
There has not been any curfew in every part of Turkey. In weekends and in some national holidays there was curfew in especially metropolitan cities where there had been considerable Covid-19 cases. Turkish government encouraged people to stay their home and this is called ‘voluntarily quarantined’. Flexible working was applied for government employees. Even if the demand for most goods and services decreased private sector continued to serve. The first curfew was applied for whole Turkey was declared between 23th and 26th of May which is national holiday (Ramadan).
There is not a system of Basic Income for individuals in Turkey. However, to protect individuals, employers and employees basically two financial aid programmes were implemented during Covid-19 until today. These are ‘Short-time Working Allowance’ and ‘Social Aid Programme’. In order to prevent employees losing their job, government encouraged employers by implementing short-time working allowance. Some of the conditions to benefit from short-time working allowance for employers are, not firing employees for three months and paying employees’ premium 450 days in last 3 years. The amount of short-time working allowance is approximately 60 per cent of minimum wage rate. As the virus is highly contagious, employers and businesses may also want to find out further information about certain insurances that can also help them through this dreaded time. Insuring key employees can help a business if those employees become ill with the virus and need to refrain from going to work for quite some time.
The second main financial aid programme implemented by the government is “Social Aid Programme”. Within this programme it was firstly aimed to give 1000 Turkish Liras (120 pounds) for 2 million households. It was announced by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance that totally 4,4 million households were paid 1000 Turkish Lira.
After summarizing the Covid-19 Pandemic and the financial aid policy of the government let me give you my personal comment. In spite of the government’s efforts for the individuals, employees and employers there are remarkable amount of people working illicitly. Unfortunately, they have lost their job. In addition, the amount of money giving to households by Social Aid Programme which is 1000 Turkish Lira cannot be enough for 3 months to keep living. Because households still had to pay their rent, water, electricity, natural gas bills to live for. Finally, in Turkey the rules and their implementations are all the time different. For example, after it is announced by the government that everybody expect under 20 and over 65 year old ones, will get medical mask for free there had been some people who could not get a mask for free. In other countries, they still have to fund their own facemasks, with many shortages still occurring across the world. Luckily there are a few companies that have N95 masks for sale so that people, businesses and hospitals can stay protected, also it allows the economy to keep up some of its foundations. That is why, after some period I think Turkish economy will be affected negatively. I do hope, especially for under developed countries could get over the economic effects of Covid-19 and governments could realize the importance of Basic Income.
The Spanish Basic Income Network (RRB) has released a survey concerning Universal Basic Income (UBI) support in Spain. This online survey was conducted by Ipsos, involving 2168 spanish citizens with ages between 18 and 65, a 50/50% gender distribution and convering most of Spanish territory. Responses were collected from an online questionnaire and interviews, plus a two-day field work stage (12-13 May 2020). Main results include:
56% of all participants agree with UBI, and only 30% disagree;
67% of all earning less than 1000 €/month agree, while 55% of those earning more than 5000 €/month agree;
Younger people (18-24 years old) agree more (62%) than other age brackets, although none fall below 53% agreement;
Only 5% of full-time workers consider stop working, and 8% would consider reducing their labor time;
The European Commission has agreed that a new European Citizens’ Initiative about Basic Income can begin in November.
Title of citizens’ initiative: Start Unconditional Basic Incomes (UBI) throughout the EU
Date of request for registration: 15/04/2020
Brussels 15/05/2020
Dear organisers, We are pleased to inform you that the European Commission has adopted today the Decision on the registration of your proposed citizen’s initiative …
On the 15th May 2020, the EU Commission agreed to register a Citizens’ Initiative for an EU-wide Unconditional Basic Income (UBI). If the Citizens’ Initiative manages to collect 1,000,000 signatures from at least seven different EU countries within a year of the start of the campaign the European Commission will be required to consider the initiative and respond.
This initiative was started by an international network of activists and initiatives called Unconditional Basic Income Europe (UBIE). This network was first started in the aftermath of a campaign to garner support for a UBI citizens’ initiative back in 2013-2014 which managed to gather 300,000 signatures from over 25 EU countries.
The new initiative asks “the EU Commission to make a proposal for unconditional basic incomes throughout the EU, which reduce regional disparities in order to strengthen the economic, social and territorial cohesion in the EU.” The proposal states the UBI “shall not replace the welfare state”, “is paid to all, without a means test”, and should be unconditional as a “human and legal right.” Moreover the UBI should be “high enough” and “provide for a decent standard of living, which meets the society’s social and cultural standards in the country concerned.” As such, the “net amount of UBI should be at least above the at-risk-of-poverty level according to EU standards, which corresponds to 60% of the so-called national median net equivalent income.”
The timing of the current initiative coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic. Many commentators suggest that a UBI could help countries weather the crisis and help boost economic recovery in its aftermath. UBIE highlighted that effective confinement measures means the “partial or total loss of […] income” for “millions across Europe” and the “risk of falling through social safety nets and into poverty.” The network launched a petition on their website that calls on EU leaders to implement an emergency UBI on the 21st March that has thus far been signed by over 175,000 Europeans. UBIE emphasised that a UBI can help guarantee that every EU citizen’s material well-being is secured and maximises uptake by avoiding increasing bureaucratic burdens on citizens and national administrations.
(As a result of the outbreak, the EU economy is forecasted to contract by 7.5% in 2020 and unemployment is forecast to rise from 6.7% in 2019 to 9% in 2020. The EU Council has agreed that the EU-wide response should be to set-up a “temporary instrument to help workers keep their jobs during the crisis.” It is called SURE, and provides loans to Member States to help pay for “national short-time work schemes and similar measures.”)
