Universal Basic Income

[Oh Buoy]

Finnish basic income pilot improved wellbeing, study finds

Jon Henley

7-9 minutes

---

Europe’s first national, government-backed basic income experiment did not do much to encourage recipients into work but did improve their mental wellbeing, confidence and life satisfaction, according to the first big study of a Finnish scheme that has attracted fresh interest in the coronavirus outbreak.

 

“The basic income recipients were more satisfied with their lives and experienced less mental strain than the control group,” the study, by researchers at Helsinki University, concluded. “They also had a more positive perception of their economic welfare.”

 

The study comes as the devastating economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis - including soaring unemployment worldwide - sparks renewed interest in basic income schemes. The pope suggested in his Easter address that “this may be the time to consider a universal basic wage”.

 

The Spanish government said last month it aimed to roll out a basic income “as soon as possible” to about a million of the country’s poorest households, with the economic affairs minister, Nadia Calviño, saying the Socialist-led government hoped a universal basic income would become “a permanent instrument”.

 

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said this week the virus and its economic consequences had “made me much, much more strongly of the view that [universal basic income] is an idea that’s time has come”.

 

Finland’s two-year scheme, which ran in 2017 and 2018 and attracted widespread international interest, paid 2,000 randomly selected unemployed people across the country a regular monthly income of €560 (£490), with no obligation to seek a job and no reduction in their payment if they accepted one.

 

Aimed primarily at seeing whether a guaranteed income might encourage people to take up often low-paid or temporary work without fear of losing benefits, the scheme was not strictly speaking a universal basic income trial because the recipients came from a restricted group and the payments were not enough to live on.

 

But it was watched closely by other governments who see a basic income not only as a way to get more people into some form of work, but also as a route to reducing dependence on the state and cutting welfare costs. The idea has gained traction amid predictions that automation could threaten up to a third of current jobs.

 

The researchers, who conducted 81 in-depth interviews with participants in the scheme, concluded that while there was significant diversity in their experiences, they were generally more satisfied with their lives and experienced less mental strain, depression, sadness and loneliness than the control group.

 

The researchers also noted a mild positive effect on employment, particularly in certain categories, such as families with children, adding that participants also tended to score better on other measures of wellbeing, including greater feelings of autonomy, financial security, and confidence in the future.

 

“Some people said the basic income had zero effect on their productivity, as there were still no jobs in the area they were trained for,” said Prof Helena Blomberg-Kroll, who led the study. “But others said that with the basic income they were prepared to take low-paying jobs they would otherwise have avoided.

 

“Some said the basic income allowed them to go back to the life they had before they became unemployed, while others said it gave them the power to say no to low-paid insecure jobs, and thus increased their sense of autonomy.”

 

The scheme also gave some participants “the possibility to try and live their dreams”, Blomberg-Kroll said. “Freelancers and artists and entrepreneurs had more positive views on the effects of the basic income, which some felt had created opportunities for them to start businesses.”

It also encouraged some participants to get more involved in society, by undertaking voluntary work, for example. “Some found the guaranteed income increased the possibility for them to do things like providing informal care for their family or their neighbours,” said one of the researchers, Christian Kroll.

“The security of the basic income allowed them to do more meaningful things, as they felt it legitimised this kind of care work. Many of the people who performed such unpaid activities during the two-year period referred to it as work.”

 

Kroll said the results of the study could support arguments both for and against basic income. “But as we’ve all learned in the early part of 2020, insecurity is not a good way to live,” he said.

 

“While basic income can’t solve all our health and societal problems, there is certainly a discussion to be had that it could be part of the solution in times of economic hardship.”

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/07/finnish-basic-income-pilot-improved-wellbeing-study-finds-coronavirus

[Grinch]

Meanwhile in the UK,  they purposely send appointment letters out late.   Resulting in complete loss of benifits, rent arrears, starvation, suicide and homelessness. 

 

 

[Numero Veinticinco]

Giving unemployed people £500 and asking them if they liked it resulted in them saying yes?

 

I’m shocked. 

[Megadrive Man]

Its inevitable that this will have to come in everywhere eventually. This pandemic will speed up the need for it. 

[Bobby Hundreds]

Does it mean no more NHS. So they say that's everything you get,  now it all has to go on private healthcare, private fire services and police insurance. We need solutions to automation but how does it all add up.

[SasaS]

2 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

Does it mean no more NHS. So they say that's everything you get,  now it all has to go on private healthcare, private fire services and police insurance. We need solutions to automation but how does it all add up.

Probably. But the British system is not the only system of universal healthcare in the world. And the American system is not the only alternative.

[Anubis]

4 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

Its inevitable that this will have to come in everywhere eventually. This pandemic will speed up the need for it. 

Nah, instead our government will make a list of people on benefit who are capable of basic cleaning jobs, and put them to into a work-for-benefit scheme where they have to clean Coronavirus wards without PPE. They’ll either then die off, or stop claiming benefit and join the ranks of the homeless living in shanty towns on bommy sites, as we used to call them as kids.

[TheHowieLama]

1 minute ago, Anubis said:

 shanty towns on bommy sites

Hotbeds there

[Megadrive Man]

4 minutes ago, Anubis said:

Nah, instead our government will make a list of people on benefit who are capable of basic cleaning jobs, and put them to into a work-for-benefit scheme where they have to clean Coronavirus wards without PPE. They’ll either then die off, or stop claiming benefit and join the ranks of the homeless living in shanty towns on bommy sites, as we used to call them as kids.

I can't see Iain Duncan Smith approving something like this?

 

Oh no wait.

[Jairzinho]

Quote

The scheme also gave some participants “the possibility to try and live their dreams”, Blomberg-Kroll said. “Freelancers and artists and entrepreneurs had more positive views on the effects of the basic income, which some felt had created opportunities for them to start businesses.”

It also encouraged some participants to get more involved in society, by undertaking voluntary work, for example. “Some found the guaranteed income increased the possibility for them to do things like providing informal care for their family or their neighbours,” said one of the researchers, Christian Kroll.

“The security of the basic income allowed them to do more meaningful things, as they felt it legitimised this kind of care work. Many of the people who performed such unpaid activities during the two-year period referred to it as work.”

This is basically why I support UBI.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Live your dream on 500 quid a month!

[Rick Sanchez C-137]

12 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

Live your dream on 500 quid a month!

 

As long as you dream of nothing but eating oats and water and living in a shed in an abandoned industrial estate.

[Elite]

13 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

Live your dream on 500 quid a month!

The caveat being that housing allowance, council tax, prescription fees, etc wouldn't be covered anymore, so people would be even worse off.

[Jairzinho]

Just now, Elite said:

The caveat being that housing allowance, council tax, prescription fees, etc wouldn't be covered anymore, so people would be even worse off.

Well, this obviously depends on whether or not your government is full of utter fucking cunts. 

 

 

[Numero Veinticinco]

30 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

This is basically why I support UBI.

As long as it’s affordable and sustainable, so do I. I think more research needs to be done. It’s an interesting concept. 

[Numero Veinticinco]

Just now, Jairzinho said:

Well, this obviously depends on whether or not your government is full of utter fucking cunts. 

Spoiler alert... 

[Elite]

Just now, Jairzinho said:

Well, this obviously depends on whether or not your government is full of utter fucking cunts. 

 

 

Well I'm English, so they most definitely are.

[Jairzinho]

3 minutes ago, Numero Veinticinco said:

Spoiler alert... 

Well, quite.

 

4 minutes ago, Numero Veinticinco said:

As long as it’s affordable and sustainable, so do I. I think more research needs to be done. It’s an interesting concept. 

Yes, looks quite difficult to get it right. But if it did, it could have a transforming effect on society.

[Jairzinho]

4 minutes ago, Elite said:

Well I'm English, so they most definitely are.

Yes, IDS' brainchild was brought in seemingly to fuck over as many people as possible.

[Bruce Spanner]

4 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

Yes, IDS' brainchild was brought in seemingly to fuck over as many people as possible.

 

Imagine being this much of a cunt.

 

This is him ‘celebrating’ condemning thousands to a miserable existence, before he swans off to his wife’s family estate to kick the help for being poor and feckless.

[Jairzinho]

1 minute ago, Bruce Spanner said:

 

Imagine being this much of a cunt.

 

This is him ‘celebrating’ condemning thousands to a miserable existence, before he swans off to his wife’s family estate to kick the help for being poor and feckless.

Yeah, he's right up there with Priti Patel. 

 

To stand out as a cunt in this Conservative party takes some doing.

[Bruce Spanner]

I’ve met Phillip Van Parijs, in fact a few times, he was at my wedding, and to hear him explain this makes so much sense.

 

It’s a shame the binary cunt/not a cunt that this circus has become means it’s a total non starter in Blighty. 

[Section_31]

Something like that needs to happen. There's lots of complex explanations for the problems in western society but the fundamental one that underpins all of it is that we've built consumer economies where the consumer has no money.

 

In the past people had union jobs, a decent wage and pension and the means to consume, that kept other people in work who themselves consumed.

 

Over time all that money's been bled out like a body covered in leeches. Siphoned off by big business and hidden under the bed in Aruba, rather than being in ordinary people's pockets, so you're left with people who can't afford anything unless it's on tick, by and large have no savings or pension and are weeks away from living on the streets, even when they've been working for decades.

 

Even the people at the top have to realise eventually that that's unsustainable and that you can't sell shit to brass plaques in the Caymans.

[etho]

I absolutely love the idea of a universal basic income as a potential mitigation to the impact of Automation.

 

But, as much as our government is full of utter cunts, as is currently being demonstrated, and has been demonstrated over the last couple of years with Brexit, this is a nation full of absolutely stupid, lazy, ignorant, racist pricks. So I'm not sure it would work here without a complete culture change 

[Strontium]

19 minutes ago, Bruce Spanner said:

 

Imagine being this much of a cunt.

 

This is him ‘celebrating’ condemning thousands to a miserable existence, before he swans off to his wife’s family estate to kick the help for being poor and feckless.

 

Actually he's celebrating a rise in the minimum wage from £6.70 to £7.20, but who cares about truth any more.