by Andre Coelho | Dec 18, 2018 | News
Picture, from left to right: Artem Demidenko (sociologist, psychologist), Nataliya Protasova (Board Chair of Basic Income Ukraine organization), Artem Kuharenko (Podolsk village council), Kateryna Drei (Head of Basic Income Ukraine organization)
After Pavlograd, there is another basic income experiment being assembled in Ukraine. This time it was announced, on the 15th of December 2018, by Artem Kuharenko, the head of the Podolskoe village council, in the Cherkasy region. Along with Natalya Protasova, who chairs the Board of the Basic Income social organization in Ukraine, Kuharenko informed that the pilot will involve all of the village’s inhabitants (550), over a two-year period.
This basic income experiment will disburse a regular, unconditional cash transfer of 200 €/month to all Podolskoe villagers. Funds are being collected, from budget surpluses and crowdfunding. Kuharenko, the youngest village mayor in the country, with only 25 years of age, aims to raise his village’ inhabitants standard of living, increase the attractiveness of rural life and bring in more people, especially young ones.
There is no information, at the moment, about how the experiment is to be conducted, namely if there will be a control group (e.g.: another village), or how recipients will be monitored (e.g.: measurements of income, social activity, health, work load, etc.).
More information at:
André Coelho, “Ukraine: Basic income experiment has started being prepared in Ukraine”, Basic Income News, December 12th 2018
Euromaidan Press, “Youngest mayor in Ukraine gives village a second life”, 20th May 2017
by Andre Coelho | Dec 16, 2018 | News
Basic income is going to be tested in Germany. The setup of the experiment will be similar to the one now ending in Finland, which means there will be an unconditional cash transfer to 250 randomly selected people among those already receiving benefits (250 others will act as the control group), and evaluate the impact in terms of labor market behavior, health and social relations.
Behind this initiative, to be initiated in May 2019, is the Sanktionsfrei organization, a non-profit managed by volunteer professionals from administration, IT-tech, communications and law. Sanktionsfrei (meaning “free from sanctions”), with headquarters in Berlin, specializes in helping sanctioned citizens by the Hartz IV social security system in Germany. It will conduct this experiment in Berlin, for a 3-year period, accepting volunteers who may apply for it through their website.
The basic income pilot, named HartzPlus, will be conducted as a scientific experiment, led by professor Rainer Wieland, from the Bergische Universität Wuppertal. The Sanktionsfrei team and professor Wieland are about to test a different approach to social security than the one applied in Germany at the moment (Hartz IV system), which has been reported as intrusive, bureaucratic and aggressive (sanctions). Those characteristics, contrary to what is considered by the system’s defenders, do not lead to increased willingness to pickup paid work (the objective of the program), but to resistance, decreased motivation and a generalized discredit in the social security system. Throughout the experiment, people will be checked for variations in mental health, life control, self-efficiency, sociopolitical values, among other indicators. No initial hypothesis will be considered; the experiment aims to offer scientifically informed insights to future social policy in Germany.
As for financing, Sanktionfrei is relying on private donors as the sole financing mechanism. Participants will receive unconditionally the amount from whatever sanctions they will be subject to by job centers (e.g.: by not responding to certain job offers or refusing to get suggested training actions); Sanktionsfrei will always try to recover the sanction money through legal action, and if it does, the participant will transfer the contested amount back to Sanktionsfrei. Otherwise, each participant gets, for the whole time period of the experiment, the full amount of their social security benefits, no questions asked.
More information at:
Tobias Kaiser, “Grundeinkommen wird in Deutschland getestet [Basic Income is tested in Germany]”, Gründerszene, December 6th 2018
André Coelho, “Finland: Going through a basic income experiment”, Basic Income News, April 20th 2018
HartzPlus website
by Andre Coelho | Dec 12, 2018 | News
The City of Pavlograd, in Ukraine, has decided to perform a basic income experiment, in order to measure the effect (on the individual level) of unconditional cash transfers on the labor market, objective and subjective well-being, financial health, changes in mental and physical health, among other social indicators. This decision was made on the 29th of November 2018, the day when the Head of the City, Mr. V. Movchan, proclaimed: “The city administration is interested and supports the proposal of the social organization “Basic income” (Ukraine) on the joint implementation in [the] city [of] Pavlograd a pilot project for the introduction of basic income, the purpose of which is to ensure a decent standard of living for the city’s residents”.
The experiment is presently in the beginning of its preparation phase. A working group is being assembled, comprising elements from Pavlograd executive bodies, social society, sociologists from several countries, public organizations and researchers. The plan, for the experiment, is to disburse the equivalent to a 100 €/month to each of the 2000 randomly selected Pavlograd adult citizens (the average monthly salary in Ukraine is around 9000 UAH, or 286 €), for a 24-month period.
City officials have communicated that the City is not yet capable of contributing to the experiment’s financing, but will cover the immediate costs of communications and announcements, physical work spaces and guaranteeing crucial human resources to start the experiment assemblage. For now, the money for the cash transfers themselves is being considered as a fund-raising initiative among public and private charitable organizations in Ukraine, as well as foreign organizations.
More information at:
In Ukrainian:
“У якості експерименту дві тисячі павлоградців посадять на безумовний дохід”, дHIпPOГPAд, November 30th 2018
by Andre Coelho | Nov 11, 2018 | News
Picture credit to: The Black Detour.
The Magnolia Mother’s Trust is an initiative generated by the Springboard to Opportunities NGO, having been referred to at a recent article on the production of the documentary “Inherent Good“. This initiative aims at supplying to poor families headed by black American women in Jackson, Mississippi, the extra cash they systematically are in need of. Since black women in the United States earn much less, on average, than white, non-Hispanic men (37% less), an inequality that is even more acute in Mississippi (44% less), the experiment is aiming at helping these very disadvantaged families, while studying the effects of supplying unconditional cash.
This cash transfer project, financed by the Economic Security Project, will deposit 1000$ per month, for 12 months, in 16 low-income single black mothers bank accounts. No questions asked. The women in question will be randomly selected from a set of black female adults with children who are considered to live in poverty, in the Jackson area. Projects such as this cash transfer project are supported by establishments like nonprofit organizations in cleveland ohio, who invest in talent and finance. The complete list of names will be known before the end of this month, with payments starting in December 2018. An important feature of this program is that some of the potential beneficiaries have helped to craft the initiative, bringing crucial input that brought, for instance, leadership training, psychological counseling and community service to the package (hence it will not be only a cash transfer program). However, participants will not be forced to uptake these auxiliary aspects of the experiment.
In this region of the United States, economic, social and racial (all aspects intertwine) inequalities are particularly severe, a problem that has not been solved by previous cash transfer programs. These, being conditional, namely on work uptake and income, “leave little room for single black mothers to create opportunities for themselves”, according to Aisha Nyandoro, the executive director of Springboard to Opportunities. Nyandoro adds that “the project is about changing the narrative and dispelling the myth of the Welfare Queen and allowing African American women to show what is possible when we trust low-income individuals”.
More information at:
André Coelho, “United States: “Inherent Good” documentary starts fund-raising campaign“, Basic Income News, November 6th 2018
J. Gabriel Ware, “The First Guaranteed Basic Income Program Designed for Single Black Moms“, Yes!, November 6th 2018
by Andre Coelho | Oct 8, 2018 | News
Rebecca Panian
The Swiss village of Rheinau is being targeted for a basic income experiment. The idea is being promoted and produced by the Dorf Testet Zukunft organization (Village of the Future Test). It started in 2016, through a popular initiative, and it had already been approved by more than 25% of the Reinhau population, at the time. Although Reinhau is only habited by 1300 people, 813 have already registered for the experiment. That is above what the organization needed for starting funding, which was 651 registrations.
The basic income test itself is planned to start as early as 2019, given enough funding is secured, which starts now. The Dorf Testet Zukunft will have to raise over 5 million Swiss Francs (4,4 million Euros). The plan is for this amount to be distributed unconditionally to all registered participants, for a year. The money will be distributed according to age, such that until 18 years old children receive 550 €/month, the 18-22 years old bracket receive 1100 €/month, from 22 to 25 years old 1640 €/month and above that a 2190 €/month stipend is specified. According to the organization, income from other sources will be discounted over the basic income, up to its maximum value. However, no one will be left with less income than presently, and all people with less income than the basic income value will have more than before (during the experiment). The exact and appropriate experimental mechanism and values are in accordance with villagers and the local council, since the project is open to comment and contributions from all involved.
Dorf Testet Zukunft’s team is composed by several dedicated people, headed by project initiator and filmmaker Rebecca Panian, Reto Ormos (financial expert) and Reda El Arbi (Communications), among others. There is also a scientific team dedicated to the project, including Jens Martignoni (FleXibles), Aleksandra Gnach (linguistics professor at ZHAW), Theo Wehner (ETH Zurich) and Sascha Liebermann (Alanus Hochschule). Other support come from activists like Daniel Häni, Götz Werner and Enno Schmidt.
Funding is planned to be done through a crowdfunding process, using Wemakeit, a crowdfunding platform founded in Switzerland in 2012. Data is to be collected from recipients during its duration, with a focus on answering general questions such as “What happens to the people?” and “What happens in the community?”, and analyzed afterwards. A documentary film is also planned, directed by Rebecca Panian, which main drive is a search for an answer for “how we want to live in the future”.
The idea is, in a nutshell, can be condensed in the following words written in the Dorf Testet Zukunft’s website:
“We want to test a possible new future as realistic as possible. This requires pioneers who dare and try it out. Best case: we can encourage people to discuss about the idea of the basic income because we are convinced that a system change must come from the people. Not prescribed from a government.”
More information at:
Dorf Testet Zukunft website
