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 Stanislas Jourdan | Jul 9, 2015 | News
Announcements from Finland and the Netherlands on the launch of basic income pilots are making ripples across Europe. In France, the Southern Region of Aquitaine might well be the next place where experiments are conducted to assess the viability of basic income.
Last Monday, July 6th, the regional Council based in Bordeaux voted through a motion marking the start of a process towards running basic income pilots in the region.
Despite a heated debate before the vote, the motion proposed by Green Council member Martine Alcorta was passed unanimously. In fact, several political groups opposed the motion, but decided to abstain when it came to a vote (see the video of the plenary here).
The president of the Council, Alain Rousset in particular rejected the proposal, which he believes is “against the work ethic”. But in the end he also stated he “could not oppose generosity”.
The motion was obviously supported by the Greens, but also with enthusiasm by the radical left coalition “Aquitaine Région Citoyenne” and by one right-wing member and deputy mayor of the city of Bordeaux, who explained her position to the online newspaper Rue89:
« I have always been in favour of the thinking around basic income. Many people don’t get by despite the number of benefits and social assistance schemes. We have to simplify everything: both administrative procedures for citizens and the workload for social workers.
Basic income is not an incentive not to work. On the contrary, it reveals people’s capacities once freed from pressures. We have to launch new experiments with a new spirit. We need new proposals, new models from what currently exist, and to think of a new system. »
So far, the adopted motion only commits the Council to start a call for projects to assess the feasibility of basic income pilots in the region. Under french law, such pilots could only be conducted under the direction of a voluntary department (sub-sections of regions in France), with the agreement of the government. The region would only provide financial support.
The initiator of the motion suggests that the pilots should be based on a proposal drafted last March by BIEN’s Affiliate, the French Movement for Basic Income, to reform the existing means-tested minimum income in France, the “Active Solidarity Income” (RSA). Under this proposal, the RSA would be automatically distributed with no work requirement and along with a taxation system more friendly towards part-time workers.
The current system suffers from many flaws. It is complex, discriminatory, household-based, and moreover it discourages people from pursuing paid work – or encourages them to instead pursue undeclared work – because of its threshold effects. Because of this, the RSA is neglected by the very people who need it. The take-up of RSA is only just over 50% of those eligible.
The proposal being pushed forward is certainly not a perfectly unconditional basic income, but it would constitute a solid step in that direction.
“This is a unique and unprecedented decision in France,” said Green local representative Marc Morisset. The Green Party of France has officially supported basic income since November 2013. Its members have been increasingly active in the promotion of the idea. Last February, another Green regional council member in Rhone-Alpes made a similar proposal, but unsuccessfully.
After this historic vote, the next step will be to finance a feasibility study, find a voluntary department and locate possible areas for experiment.
by Stanislas Jourdan | Jul 8, 2015 | News
Following growing interest in the idea of a basic income in the Netherlands over the past year, the feasibility of local pilot projects to investigate basic income is being considered in more than 30 Dutch municipalities.
The City of Utrecht, the fourth most populated City of the Netherlands, has attracted a lot of attention recently – including at an international level – with the early announcement of their launch of a pilot project later this year.
Although the program is far from being ready and its specifics are far less radical than they sound, the good news is: Utrecht might just be the tip of the iceberg of a massive wave of local experiments in the Netherlands.
Currently there are 30 Dutch municipalities interested in running basic income pilot projects. Among them, the cities of Utrecht, Tilburg, Wageningen and Groningen are the most advanced.
These developments are the fruit of many people’s efforts. They are also the outcome of an unprecedented wave of awareness about basic income in the Netherlands, following the broadcast of two Dutch documentaries about basic income.
Sjir Hoeijmakers
Sjir Hoeijmakers, a young econometrician, helps stakeholders interested in experimenting with the idea of a basic income at a local level. He follows up with all interested cities, advises them, and tries to create synergies between them. Hoeijmakers crowdfunded his own ‘basic income’ a few month ago, so he could afford to dedicate himself into the coordination of pilot projects ideas in the Netherlands.
“Most of the people starting these initiatives are looking for an alternative to the current social security system, which is perceived as being based too much on distrust in and control over welfare recipients.” explains Sjir Hoeijmakers. According to him, most of the initiative for local pilots comes from people working inside the municipal administrations, but some also come from academics or are citizens’ initiatives. “What is most interesting and a very good sign is that the initiatives come from people with all kinds of political backgrounds, and are often depoliticized.” .
But what are those experiments about exactly? Despite the media enthusiasm about Utrecht becoming soon “the first city without poverty in Europe”, the reality is of course slightly less utopian.
“Experiments will focus on people already receiving benefits”
The experiments will mostly focus on people who are already welfare claimants in the Netherlands, and particularly beneficiaries of the national minimum income system, which is means-tested and conditional. It is also not paid on an individual basis, but assessed by household.
In fact, those experiments mainly have two major differences with the current system: they aim at making social assistance less conditional regarding work requirements, and will aim at removing the poverty trap by allowing people to earn extra money on top of their social allowance.
However the schemes being considered so far remain household-based, means-tested and therefore non-universal. In fact, these schemes are similar to the concept of negative income tax which in the 1970s, was the basis of experiments in the United States.
“These experiments are not exactly basic income, but they go in that direction” insists Sjir Hoeijmakers. Basic Income Network in the Netherlands agrees too, and regards these initiatives as possible milestones on the path towards a fully unconditional basic income.
This approach has a fundamental advantage: since the target groups are already receiving welfare money, not much extra funding is needed from the existing budget to run these experiments. This would be a different story if all of the city’s residents were included.
“Utrecht is making big plans, but they are not ready yet”
International media outlets such as The Independent and many others have extensively reported on the case of Utrecht, reporting that the experiment could start as early as September. Sjir Hoeijmakers admits to being surprised by how much coverage the city of Utrecht is getting right now.
“The City is making big plans, especially thanks to Alderman Victor Everhardt. The program, however, is just one of many experimental initiatives, and still needs to be authorized by the National Secretary of Social Security” says Sjir Hoeijmakers. According to him, the program will most likely not start before January 2016: ”To be realistic, it could be far later than that, depending on the politics of it.”
Despite the media excitement, the numbers of people and the amounts to be given aren’t fixed yet: there are only approximate numbers up till now, and they don’t necessarily give a good picture of what will be done.
The Utrecht experiment as currently planned, would work with 5 groups, only of which one would get something close to a basic income (no withdrawal if there is extra earned income, no further conditions). A sixth group who stay living under the current welfare system will act as a control group. Each group will have a minimum of 50 people, and the 900 and 1300 euros aren’t exact figures but indications of how much might be paid.
“The city of Utrecht is using the rhetoric of the basic income, which may have contributed to it getting so much attention.” he says. “In some other cases the term Trust Experiment is being used, to avoid confusion with the concept of a full unconditional basic income.”
Several political parties openly support the experiments, including the green-left, the liberal-democrats, and some among the labor and the socialist parties.
by Liam Upton | Jul 2, 2015 | News
The news analysis show has an interview about Basic Income, as a result of Calgary and Edmonton mayors coming out in favour.
CBC, The Exchange with Amanda Lang, 9 June 2015
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.
