by Stanislas Jourdan | Oct 15, 2015 | News
The Finnish government has just taken a first step towards delivering on its promise to implement a basic income pilot during its term in office.
After committing itself to conducting a basic income pilot in Finland the Finnish government is putting words into action. Formed after the general election last Spring the new government of Finland led by the Centrist party announced in September the allocation of a grant to a group of researchers from the Finnish social security and pension department (KELA).
The group also includes researchers from the University of Tampere, the influential Institute for Economic Research and the independent think tank Tänk, which previously published its own proposal for a basic income pilot project. This working group is now in charge of designing parameters for the pilot project, which should be delivered by 2016.
Otto Lehto, President of BIEN-Finland told Basic Income News this week, “We welcome the creation of this working group and are happy that KELA, Tänk and researchers from the University of Tampere are involved in it. They are authoritative organisations with people that actually understand what basic income means.”
Strong and persistent popular support for basic income
KELA has already started to work on the topic of basic income with a series of articles and studies. In September, it conducted an opinion poll which showed 70% of Finns in favour of basic income, confirming the strong popular support witnessed in similar polls in 2002 and earlier this year. The poll also revealed that most people think a good level of basic income would be about 1000 euros a month.
The publication of KELA’s Annual Report provoked a debate in the Finnish Parliament about basic income, where even skeptics and opponents thought it would be a good idea to organise a pilot study.
This resonates with an editorial published on October 11 in the influential newspaper ‘Helsingin Sanomat’ which argued that “the basic income pilot study is a good idea” while carefully stressing the need for a pilot programme. The editorial also said that whatever difficulties basic income might have, it is important to study its effects, and that the Finnish welfare system is in desperate need of a complete overhaul.
The pilot should start in 2017
Despite a push by one member of the Center Party Jouni Ovaska, to start the pilot project by 2016, the two ministers responsible for the project, Hanna Mäntylä (True Finns party) and Anu Vehviläinen (Centre Party) stressed that the experiment should not be conducted hastily since nobody wants a badly executed study. The pilot program should therefore not start before 2017.
BIEN-Finland fully shares the government’s concerns. “A pilot project organised without sufficient planning and on a low budget would not be scientifically significant,” stressed Mr Lehto.
“The worst option would be a geographical study that takes place in one location only, since it would be susceptible to uncontrollable local variables. Ideally, we would want to study the effects of basic income on a wide variety of people in different circumstances and different locations. This means either having a proper randomized trial across the whole population, geographically dispersed across the whole country (as suggested by the Tänk/Sitra study last winter); or a regional pilot involving many different locations with different sociological, economic and demographic profiles.”
Mr Lehto concluded, “We put our hopes in the KELA-led team to produce a good plan that actually helps moves forward the discussion on basic income.”
Credit Picture © Finnish Parliament
by BIEN | Sep 6, 2015 | News
The Finnish Government is interested in the basic income. Prime Minister Juha Sipila has expressed support for the idea, saying, “For me, a basic income means simplifying the social security system.” 4 out of 5 Finns currently support the basic income, but some policy experts have expressed hesitation to endorse the policy. Ohto Kanninen, from Tank Research Centre, said, “What would be the impact of a basic income to employment in Finland – positive or negative? We can’t really foresee how people would behave with a basic income.” Consequently, a pilot is being considered. The project would pay 8,000 people from low income groups four different monthly amounts, possibly ranging from €400 to €700. The Finnish constitution requires every citizen must be equal, which could prevent the project, but this requirement could be waived to gain information for the good of society
For more information on the Finnish basic income project, see:
“Finland considers basic income to reform welfare system” Maija Unkuri, BBC News. August 20, 2015.
by Stanislas Jourdan | Jul 30, 2015 | News
Leaders from the traditional biggest opponents to basic income in Finland, the Social Democratic Party and Trade Union Central Federation STKK, said their organisations should eventually consider basic income.
Two major faces from the Finnish leftist political sphere, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) chairman Antti Rinne and Trade Union leader Antti Palola have just made a significant shift of attitude towards basic income during SuomiAreena, an annual public debate forum held in Pori, Finland.
“If basic income means that everyone is secured in a decent way, the SDP must be involved in this debate” said Antti Rinne, Social Democrat leader and former minister of finance. Rinne thinks it is important that any basic income would not make it more difficult to take up work.
The Social Democratic Party has been the main basic income opponent in Finland. During the last general elections, 80% of their candidates for parliament said they opposed basic income.
A similar move came from Trade Union STTK leader Antti Palola, who was also speaking at SuomiAreena. He said:
Personally, I’ve been thinking about this issue and come to the conclusion that we in the trade union movement need to reposition ourselves on this issue. After all, we have traditionally been very tightly in favour of this discretionary income-related basic social security. We have seen that it is the right thing.
According to Palola, the old vision of Trade Unions was relevant as long as the people had permanent – big or small – incomes from standard employment positions. However, the labor market is rapidly changing and the Union movement should hear these new signals.
The new center-right government of Finland has committed itself to implement a basic income pilot, although the details are not known yet. The SDP has not yet announced whether or not it will oppose this project in the parliament.
Credit picture CC Demarit
With contribution from Johanna Perkiö
by Stanislas Jourdan | Jun 29, 2015 | Opinion
The new centre-right government coalition in Finland committed to run a basic income pilot project. It is however unlikely that a pure unconditional basic income has any chance to be experimented, says BIEN Finland‘s chairman Otto Lehto in this interview.
The Basic income community worldwide is getting excited about the Finnish government’s commitment to launch a basic income experiment. Are you enthusiastic too?
We have certainly reached a historical point. For the first time, in the general elections of April 2015, the majority of the MP’s in the Finnish Parliament have expressed their support, ranging from mild to strong, for basic income. This data derives from the answers given by candidates during the last election. The majority of the Finnish public has also expressed its support for the idea. This is the result of many years of active public debate and discussion, including our much-publicized but ultimately unsuccessful citizen’s initiative campaign (2013).
Otto Lehto
The new government, led by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä from the Centre Party, has committed itself to setting up a pilot project for basic income. However, premature enthusiasm should be dampened by realism. For one, it is not entirely clear whether people understand the term in the same way. Many MP’s support a BIG that is conditional, means-tested and non-universal.
Secondly, there are elements in the government, including powerful ministers, who oppose UBI and will undoubtedly do their best to abort, or at least water down, the pilot experiment.
So there are reasons to be optimistic but also reasons to worry about the outcome.
How will this pilot project be conducted?
The government hasn’t announced the details yet. The public announcements have been sparse. The government should roll out more details in the coming months. In the past, Prime Minister Sipilä has expressed his support for a regional study conducted under the advice of experts.
Has the Centre Party of Finland been a strong basic income supporter in the past?
The party has traditionally been in support of a basic income or a negative income tax, at least since the 1990’s. However, unlike the Greens and the Left Alliance, who have quite detailed calculations, the Centre Party has never specified what kind of a basic income model it supports. In addition, the party has been quiet on the issue for a long time. The youth wing of the party, however, has been working together with BIEN Finland to advocate for a proper Basic Income.
Support for the basic income renewed itself in the party since september 2014, after the new party leader Prime Minister Sipilä, expressed his support for setting up a pilot project in Finland. At the same time, the influential think tank Sitra funded a report by Tänk (November 2014), which provided a roadmap for setting up a pilot project for BIG.
These developments have led to this point. However, the leaders of the party are still divided on whether this should be a proper BIG or a means-tested, conditional form of BIG.
How about the other parties involved in the current governing coalition ?
The other government coalition parties (the True Finns and the National Coalition Party) are equally divided on the issue, so it is unclear on whether a “pure” Unconditional Basic Income has any chance of even being tried. The current leadership of those parties is unfortunately quite opposed to the idea, or at least suspicious of it, even though there are many supporters in the rank and file members of the two parties.
So, although the Centre Party has managed to include the basic income pilot project into the government’s agenda, it is not very high on the list of priorities for the other coalition parties.
And, to complicate matters, the new government has expressed its intention to increasing the work requirement of social security in order to reduce the costs of the welfare system, while at the same time pushing for a basic income experiment! The same ambivalence is reflected in their statements released to the media. The schizophrenic push and pull between these mutually incompatible goals — piloting an unconditional basic income and simultaneously increasing the conditionality of social security benefits – makes predicting the future difficult.
In this context, how will BIEN Finland stand?
The BIEN Finland network has strong existing connections to many of the opposition parties (including the Green Party and the Left Alliance, which are both strong supporters of basic income). Due to accidents of history, we have weaker connections to the government coalition parties, with the exception of a handful of MP’s, think tanks and the youth wing of the Center Party, so we have had little influence on the planning of the basic income pilot project.
Nonetheless, we will continue to proactively offer our expertise to the government. We will follow the developments as they happen, and inform the European network as soon as we know more about the upcoming pilot program.
Thank you Otto!
Credit picture: CC Aaronigma
by Liam Upton | Jun 16, 2015 | News
The new Finnish government has committed to a Basic Income experiment as part of its programme for government, published last month.
For more updated information on the situation in Finland, please read this article.
The commitment consists of one line: ‘Implement a Basic Income experiment’, in the ‘Health and Welfare’ section of the programme.
The main party of government, the Centre Party and the new Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, are known to be supportive of Basic Income, but his new government partners, the populist Finns Party and conservative NCP have not spoken publicly on the issue. The scant reference to Basic Income raises some doubts about the government’s commitment to the policy.
Nonetheless, this marks the first commitment from a European country to implement a Basic Income experiment and will be the first experiment in a developed nation since the 1970s. Other experiments have been performed more recently in India, Namibia and Brazil. Every experiment so far has reported very positive results with improved economic performance, health, housing and other outcomes. It also reflects the increasing interest in Basic Income worldwide with prominent European parties like Podemos in Spain and D66 in the Netherlands adopting it as a policy.
The government has not released a timescale nor any further details about the experiment. For more updated information on the situation in Finland, please read this article.
