Basic income : the future of social policy or an expensive fad?

Abstract

Basic Income has become an increasingly popular topic in debates on the future of social welfare policies. It has been proposed as a means of securing economic wellbeing and security in times of economic change, and criticised for being too expensive and for disincentivising work. This session debates the advantages and disadvantages of Basic Income and offers reflections on the experiences and first results from the Finnish Basic Income experiment, which provided a monthly unconditional cash transfer of € 560 over two years to 2,000 unemployed individuals, whereas an identical control group remained under the existing benefit scheme. What were the main employment and welfare impacts? Did the Finnish and other similar experiments make us any wiser? Is Basic Income the future of social policy, or an expensive fad?