by Adrian Planken | Nov 1, 2015 | News
The Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs wants cities who are interested in experimenting with basic income to come up with a common plan.
The municipalities of Utrecht, Tilburg, Groningen and Wageningen will jointly submit a ‘ uniformly ‘ plan ‘ before they can get permission for their experiments, including ‘ free money ‘. That has a spokesman of the Ministry of Social Affairs Wednesday evening told. This summer it became known that Utrecht, Tilburg, Groningen and Wageningen did want to set up experiments around social security payments.
According to the municipalities the current rules for the social security are too rigid and they work sometimes counter-productively. There would be too many re-integration and interview obligations with high penalties, such as suspension of the benefit. Customization is not possible and the municipality would have lost a lot of time with the controls.
For this reason, the four municipalities do want to give some of their social assistance receivers an unconditional social security payment – what they call a ‘ basic income ‘-, i.e. a monthly income of the Government without an obligation to take paid employment, to be involved in community service. Persons entitled to this assistance may also reserve their extra earnings. Tilburg, Utrecht, Groningen and Wageningen want to examine whether this group will become more active than others with the current, strict regime.
The four municipalities spoke with to PvdA-Jetta Klijnsma State Secretary of Social Affairs during a ‘ first ‘ conversation to get approval for the experiments. Admittedly the current “Participatiewet” (=participation law, to which the social assistance belongs) allow some ‘room for experiment’, but that seems not spacious enough for what Tilburg, Utrecht, Wageningen and Groningen are heading for. Klijnsma now wants that the four municipalities come up with a common, unambiguous proposal, because their ideas are still far apart. Tilburg for example is planning a four years experiment in cooperation with the University, while Utrecht goes out of a year. Utrecht also wants, in addition to providing a basic income to some social assistance receivers and to compare the results of it with the results in other groups in which they use positive incentives. One of this groups will for example be rewarded with a bonus if they (volunteer) work.
A follow-up appointment with Klijnsma is planned in the first half of November this year. Then they will try on the basis of a new proposal to come to an agreement about the possibly stretching of the experiment space in the Participatiewet. In the meantime there is much discussion about the basic income in the Netherlands. Proponents commend on the aim to give social assistance receivers an unconditional social security payment as a means to free the recipients of the restrictions and humiliations they have to suffer and think that this freedom will lead to creativity. Opponents, such as the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB), warn that it will be prohibitive to give everyone a ‘basic income’ and thinks it will discourage the people who get it to be active.
Ria Cats, “Four municipalities have to make a uniform plan for ‘ free money ‘ “. Financieel Dagblad, September 23, 2015.
De Gelderlander, “State Secretary of Social Affairs ask for additional research welfare experiment Wageningen” De Gelderlander, September 27, 2015.
by Karl Widerquist | Oct 29, 2015 | News
From UBIE
The Dutch Basic Income Network releases the following invitation to its upcoming conference:
Dear friends in BIEN and UBIE,
We have the pleasure of inviting you to the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Dutch Basic Income Association (Vereniging Basisinkomen), which will be held from 29 to 31 January 2016. in Maastricht, Maasboulevard 101, 6211 JW, The Netherlands, (tel + 31 (0)43 750 17 90).
Lately, there is much controversy and misunderstanding relating to definitions in The Netherlands about all kinds of initiatives concerning the universal basic income (UBI) among groups as different as activists, citizens, members of city councils, scholars, politicians, opion leaders. Obviously, the most prominent issues for the basic income movement in our country – as well as for UBIE and BIEN – are these days questions about the benefits and disadvantages of the introduction of a partial basic income and questions around the promises and limitations of experiments with a basic income. We hope to present an interesting programme by addressing these problems in a broader, international setting. So all our friends from The Netherlands and from abroad are invited to participate, so that we can make this twenty-fifth anniversary a real international event. We propose the following programme:
29 January
The focus will be on the members of our society and therefore the event will be in Dutch.
In the evening there will be a communal dinner served as a buffet. Afterwards there will be the possibilty of dancing at a Salsa-night.
30 January
There will be an international congress in English. All members of UBIE and BIEN who want to join this event are welcome just as all the members of our society. The main question that will be discussed during the day is What role for a modest participation income?. Short introductions will be given by Guy Standing, Philippe van Parijs, Enno Schmidt and Sjir Hoeijmakers. There will be plenty of time for discussion. See keynote speaker page.
In the evening focus will be on another urgent subject Promises and limitations of pilot projects and controlled experiments. Do we need more schemes for them or not? We hope that the issue will provoke a lively debate between the day keynote speakers and participants.
31 January
Twenty-five years ago on this same day, our association was founded. Let’s celebrate this remarkable beginning/fact with The stories we tell. Erica Scott, Sérgio Alvès and Wiebke Fercho will talk about the role of stories and narratives as crucial ingredients in communication aiming towards a sustainable society as well as of the importance of taking personal values into consideration when designing a narrative for an initiative with the intention of creating societal change. They will also present the results of their study that analysed how the narrative of the European Citizens Initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income from 2013 spoke to the values of the population of the European Union. Finally, they will briefly present how we can design a better narrative for the initiative of an unconditional basic income. See keynote speaker page.
Afterwards there will be a UBIE working conference which is open to all. Of course, only UBIE members are authorized to take final decisions.
All these activities will take place in Stayokay Hostel Maastricht.
Please visit https://basisinkomen.org for more information, program, registration, travel
[Direct conference link: https://basicincome-europe.org/ubie/2015/09/celebration-of-the-25th-anniversary-of-the-dutch-basic-income-association/]
by Will Wachtmeister | Aug 20, 2015 | News
From: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociaal-Economische_Raad#/media/File:SERDenHaag.JPG
The influential Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands has quietly started an internal debate on basic income.
The official newsletter of the so-called SER (“Sociaal-economische Raad”, an official advisory organ composed of national employers and employee representatives as well as government experts) has carried two positive articles about basic income’s potential in recent months.
Dutch commentator Reyer Brons notes that given the SER’s semi-institutionalized influence over social policy design, the articles represent an important signal that BIG has “well and truly” made it onto the national political agenda.
Language DUTCH:
Reyer Brons, “Ook de SER noemt het basisinkomen.”, Netwerk Politieke Innovatie, July 6, 2015
by Will Wachtmeister | Aug 14, 2015 | News
The independent Liberal Party of the Netherlands (Vrijzinnige Partij) has promised to work up a national parliamentary motion in favour of a fully-fledged basic income for all Dutch citizens.
The political party formed in 2014 – which has a single parliamentary seat held by high-profile politician Norbert Klein – said that the growing number of local Dutch basic income initiatives represented no more than a welcome move toward condition-free benefits for claimants.
The party said it was high time that national politics took a serious look at a pure basic income for all citizens, adding that informal parliamentary channels to support the motion were already being established.
Norbert Klein, “De tijd is rijp voor het basisinkomen.” Trouw, 25 June 2015
Vrijzinnige Partij, “Tijd is rijp voor het Basisinkomen.” vrijzinnigepartij.nl 25 June 2015
by Josh Martin | Jul 30, 2015 | News
This article discusses the upcoming basic income experiment in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and compares it to the Canadian ‘Mincome’ project in Dauphin, Manitoba in the 1970s. Many questions still persist about basic income, and hopefully Utrecht will address some of them.
Maria Sanchez Diez, “A Dutch city is giving money away to test the ‘basic income’ theory”, Quartz, 30 June 2015.
