by Arınç Boz | Jun 3, 2020 | News
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.
by Andre Coelho | May 31, 2020 | News
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;
- A UBI of 715 € would not reduce job seeking.
by Aleksander Masternak | May 18, 2020 | News
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.”)
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by Louise Haagh | May 11, 2020 | News, Opinion
In April BIEN’s Executive Committee agreed some plans to feature the growing public attention around basic income as a response to the Coronavirus crisis, in an informative and critical way. We launched the new BIEN Bulletin, which is up and running. We also agreed a BIEN zoom-cast to be anchored by Louise Haagh, Sarath Davala and Jamie Cook. Finally, BIEN’s academic blog the Navigator, will feature the Covid-crisis in its first edition, to be launched this Autumn.
We are pleased today to publish the first episode of the BIEN Conversations Zoom Cast, in which some of the general themes we envisage will run through the series of dialogues are sketched.
To watch the video, click here.
The Zoom Cast does not aim to generate BIEN positions, and does not reflect BIEN positions. The opinions of the anchors and guests are their own.
The aim of the Zoom cast is to fill a gap in the coverage of Covid and basic income, by reflecting critically on both the opportunities and risks which this new context for the discussion about basic income creates.
What is the relationship of a prospective basic income with other economic security schemes, such as Furlough in Britain? How does the existing labour market affect the need for cash grants and the government response? What can we learn from cases such as the US, where the government has extended what looks like a rich-tested temporary UBI, in the form of flat income grants to individuals of 1200$ (for anyone earning less than 125K$)? To what extent it this response a feature of the US labour market context, including the spectre of huge job losses? In India and parts of Eastern Europe, with large labour migrant populations being either stuck or forced to return to their home country without income security, the role of a potential temporary unconditional cash grant scheme addresses deeper problems of labour migration.
What about the preparedness for Covid in different countries? Are there lessons for basic income from the differences in state capacity and social organisation which country responses to Covid reveal? For example, countries which have been able to track and reduce instances of Covid have needed less extensive lock-down restrictions and in turn the economic outlook may be better. Contrasting examples show vividly how the need for and capacity to support basic income-like schemes and transitions may be at odds: greater need often comes with less capacity. What implications can we draw of relevance for the wider debate from this sort of scenario?
Other issues the Zoom cast series hopes to cover include the relationship of basic income debate, rationale, and prospects with larger questions affecting the conditions in which basic income be can be realised and be effective. Relevant background factors include post-covid servicing and potential restructuring or relief of public debt, and government-led choices about austerity versus social investment. Debates which pit basic income against other public policy measures will be more likely where short-term debt servicing trumps long-term social investment and planning. Some say that short-term recovery measures can be turned into a permanent basic income scheme. But is it that simple? How do administrative, political and funding logics intersect? What is already clear is that in the post-covid context the debates about what motivates basic income, and if choices need to be made, which features of a UBI matters most in a transitional context, will only become more urgent. Perhaps we need to accept these choices and their answers will look different in different places. A theme that has always motivated me however is the importance in general of emphasizing basic income as an institutional innovation, which is linked not only with unconditionality but also with the scheme’s permanency.
Permanency is key to a UBI’s impact on health and motivation, and thus the sense of freedom, and to the potential to support other public policies. Without permanency, the fit of basic income to other economic institutions and to development transitions such as towards a green economy, are harder to envisage.
Permanency of basic income is accepted as an inbuilt feature of UBI by most experts, but it is lost sight of in public debates in favour of short-term needs – understandably, and this tendency becomes naturally more prominent in crisis conditions. However, being able to maintain a long-term perspective, with an eye on the advantages of permanence can also be argued to be even more important at critical junctures such as these, including to avoid an impression that basic income is essentially a crisis or anti-poverty measure.
All these considerations, and many others, are harder to balance in moments of, respectively, opportunity and crisis.
In the Bien Conversations series, we hope to raise some of these and other issues through a dialogue that engages events, and their regional dimensions, whilst also brining the long-standing debates to bear on our reflections.
The format of the Conversations series will be a discussion of the news and events, combined with a focus on regional experiences and on topical issues, led by the anchors and with the presence of guests from around the world.
feature the growing public attention around basic income as a response to the Coronavirus crisis.
Louise Haagh, BIEN Chair
To watch the video, click here.
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by Guest Contributor | May 7, 2020 | Opinion
Time for a new story
A corona is the halo of light around the solar eclipse. The coronavirus crisis can ensure a more balanced economy. Care and solidarity must support our economy and society.
Under a crystal-clear sky and the chirping of birds, our economy glides into a state of slow motion. Foremost, the virus is a drama and poses a great risk for society and its people. Next to that, it is also a strange experience. It is quiet, mostly dogs with their owners populate the streets.
Only “vital functions” are fulfilled. Non-vital employees have to stay at home or work from home. They are not really necessary. Childcare is only available for people who work in healthcare, and other employees that we really cannot do without. The rest must arrange childcare themselves. Raising children is a vital function in society, and suddenly childcare is too.
This is remarkable. Our view of the economy and income is rapidly changing. Our values change. The term “Working Netherlands” takes on a different meaning than before. Our health is number one, and better-paid employees sit at home these days. We have traded shopping for a quiet walk. Nature makes itself heard, people no longer dominate everything.
Crucial reflection
And that new reality leads, next to all the illness and disruption, to crucial reflection. Considering how we have organized our society and our economy. We reflect on the value of well-paid, low-paid, and unpaid labor for the economy and our society. We reflect on the value of (working) time. And we reflect on what everything is all about.
Ever since the coronavirus spread throughout the world, there is great appreciation for the people who work in healthcare. Everyone now sees that these vital functions are worth a lot, but that at the same time they are not the highest-paying jobs.
It started with applause from balconies in Spain and Italy, followed by applause and flags in the Netherlands. A standing ovation. Professionals take care of the sick and are at risk themselves. This crucial interest is now visible and visibly appreciated.
In addition, there are care activities that are not paid. We also applaud all these unpaid people! Unpaid care activities, such as care for children, family, for the earth, the environment, social contacts, and culture, are vital as well. And this is more visible as well. In this time of crisis in the Netherlands, we are seeing more solidarity and more unpaid voluntary initiatives.
A different world
The current old economy is being hit hard, and we will soon have to deal with it when this is over. We are curious to hear what Prime Minister Rutte will say on behalf of the national government. Will it again be: “Buy the car you wanted for a long time”, trying to stimulate consumerism? Or does this crisis bring a different vision and a different world closer than ever?
Will there be a reflection on our incomplete society with our focus on rules and procedures? We need a vision of how we can organize society differently. A society where not money but people are completely central again.
Once again: paralyzing the current economy gives us time to reflect on this and think about a different economy. An economy in which we realize that it mainly consists of services and care. An economy in which solidarity and security of existence are paramount.
Making unpaid work visible
The crisis is a disaster, but it also shows us where we come short. And it brings up essential questions. How can we take better care of each other? How can we take better care of our Earth? How can we also make unpaid intrinsically-motivated care work visible in our economic model?
We should think about care credits. Some examples: a pension for unpaid caregivers, a universal global price for oxygen, better reimbursements for volunteers. And yes, we should consider a universal basic income.
These proposals and ideas can be a lever for changing values and appreciation for all the (unpaid) care work and solidarity that is now visible in this crisis. And these measures can be a safeguard to achieve a different society and a new economic model. Because there is no one who has never been taken care of, and everyone will ever take care of someone.
A corona is the halo of light around the solar eclipse. A fragile light shines behind the dark. The coronavirus crisis can provide a more balanced picture of the economy. It is not the banks and stock markets, but it is solidarity and care that support our economy and society.
It’s time for a new story.
Jan Atze Nicolai
Political thinker and poet
Member of the Board of Vereniging Basisinkomen (BIEN member)a
