Maintaining basic income

Sustaining minimum income
Income maintenance schemes
Providing basic income
Assuring basic income

Description

Maintaining basic income involves ensuring the continuous and reliable provision of a minimum financial support to all individuals, regardless of employment status. This strategy focuses on establishing robust administrative systems, securing sustainable funding sources, and regularly adjusting payments to meet living costs. Its practical intent is to reduce poverty, prevent social exclusion, and provide economic stability, thereby remedying issues such as income insecurity, unemployment, and the adverse effects of economic shocks on vulnerable populations.

Implementation

The Dutch Planning Bureau has recently employed a sophisticated computer model to test a scenario in which a price-indexed individual basic income of Dutch Fl 1,200 would replace the current means-tested and household-based minimum income guarantee and housing subsidies. It would be financed from a portion of the proceeds of an income tax set at a uniform rate of 44% (instead of the present 38% to 50%). Producing a significant reduction in bureaucracy and a massive expansion of part-time work, the predicted outcome is a fall in public expenditure and a 25% reduction in the unemployment rate. The main price would be extracted from those who are unemployed and single. They would see a reduction in their benefits to half the current level.