Category: Basic Income

Call to Use COVID-19 Relief Package to Send Chicagoans Cash Triggers Reparations Debate

Call to Use COVID-19 Relief Package to Send Chicagoans Cash Triggers Reparations Debate

(benscripps / Pixabay) A call for Mayor Lori Lightfoot to use COVID-19 relief fund to send cash assistance payments to Chicagoans struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic triggered a heated debate on reparations for the descendants of enslaved people.

Although the City Council voted 30-18 to pass the nonbinding resolution championed by Alds. Gilbert Villegas (36th Ward) and Maria Hadden (49th Ward), Black Caucus Chair Ald. Jason Ervin (27th Ward) said it was an insult to talk about using $50 million to send 5,000 of Chicago’s neediest families $500 a month without having a plan in place to pay […]

The Bezos Earth Fund Needs to Stop Shortchanging Environmental-Justice Nonprofits

The Bezos Earth Fund Needs to Stop Shortchanging Environmental-Justice Nonprofits

Nonprofit News From Elsewhere

Oakland will launch a guaranteed-income program with money from private donors. The city will send $500 a month to up to 600 families of color with incomes below a certain threshold. Funded in part by the Blue Meridian Partners philanthropy, the program is part of a growing movement that advocates hope will ultimately become a federal program. The Oakland effort is unique in targeting only families of color who make on average one-third of what white families earn in the Oakland area, and it is the biggest guaranteed-income program so far. In an earlier pilot […]

Covid offers chance to introduce FREE monthly income for every UK citizen claims expert

Covid offers chance to introduce FREE monthly income for every UK citizen claims expert

Universal basic income removes ‘incentive’ says analyst

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When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Universal Credit claimants with children may claim a budgeting advance UBI supporters argue it is needed to eliminate absolute poverty and prepare for a world where an increasing proportion […]

Moms to receive unrestricted cash in MCF project

Moms to receive unrestricted cash in MCF project

A group of moms in Marin will receive $1,000 a month for two years to demonstrate the impact of a universal basic income. Adding to a growing body of research that shows that providing an income floor results in dramatic improvements to quality of life, the Marin Community Foundation will give cash, with no restrictions on how it is spent, to 125 randomly selected residents.

“The evidence is clear that it’s a useful way of supporting moms and families to achieve greater self-sufficiency and independence,” said Jonathan Logan, the foundation’s vice president of community engagement. “We are extremely excited about […]

California City Debuts Universal Basic Income Program To Help Residents Survive Economic Crisis

California City Debuts Universal Basic Income Program To Help Residents Survive Economic Crisis

Judy van der Velden / Flickr.com At the height of the pandemic in the U.S., politicians from Andrew Yang to Bernie Sanders touted the benefits of some form of Universal Basic Income to help Americans through unprecedented times. The childcare tax stimulus that parents will receive as part of President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan is the closest the federal government has offered to universal basic income.

Find Out: Biden’s $1,400 Stimulus Checks Won’t Work – How Economists Think We Should Use the Money Instead
See All Our Coverage: COVID’s Financial Impact After 1 Year
The City […]

Basic income in the UK – modelling the trade-offs with our microsimulation model UKMOD

Basic income in the UK - modelling the trade-offs with our microsimulation model UKMOD

The Women’s Budget Group and the Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis at the University of Essex are organising an event on 30 April on Basic Income & UKMOD – Modelling Trade-Offs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred renewed interest in the possibilities of Universal Basic Income (UBI) to address the key problems of income insecurity, poverty and income inequality. UBI is claimed to provide income security and financial autonomy to individuals through a fixed, unconditional and individual regular stipend. By offering everyone a guaranteed income, a BI scheme would work to reduce poverty and income inequality.

Several Basic Income schemes have […]

Oakland launches guaranteed pay plan for low-income people of color

Oakland launches guaranteed pay plan for low-income people of color

FILE – In this April 10, 2020, file photo, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf speaks at a news conference in Oakland, Calif. Mayor Schaaf on Tuesday, March 23, 2021, announced a privately funded program that will give low-income families of color $500 per month with no rules on how they can spend it. The program in Oakland is the latest example of "guaranteed income," an idea that giving poor people a set amount of money each month will ease the stresses of poverty that contribute to poor health and hinder their ability to find full-time work. (Source: Ben Margot) SACRAMENTO, […]

Detroit Rep. Tlaib introduces bill for $2K relief, $1K recurring monthly payments

Detroit Rep. Tlaib introduces bill for $2K relief, $1K recurring monthly payments

DETROIT – U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib has reintroduced legislation that would send a $2,000 relief payment to every American. WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 23: House Financial Services Committee member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) questions Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill October 23, 2019 in Washingto Expand The bill, which the Detroit congresswoman first introduced last year at the beginning of the pandemic , also sends $1,000 recurring monthly payments for an additional year after the pandemic ends.

The Automatic BOOST to Communities Act would "uplift unbanked and underbanked" […]

How Biden’s Government Assistance Plan Unites Us

How Biden’s Government Assistance Plan Unites Us

Photo by Danique Photography on Unsplash . A quarter century ago, I and other members of Bill Clinton’s cabinet urged him to reject the Republican’s proposal to end welfare. It was too punitive, we said, subjecting poor Americans to deep and abiding poverty. But Clinton’s political advisers warned that unless he went along, he jeopardized his reelection.

That was the end of welfare as we knew it. As Clinton boasted in his State of the Union address to Congress that year, “the era of big government is over.”

Until last Thursday, that is, when Joe Biden signed into law the biggest […]

The insanely popular idea that’s taking off in Illinois and across the country

The insanely popular idea that's taking off in Illinois and across the country

COVID-19 hit like a tsunami. In its path stood both human lives and economic futures. My residents didn’t just need answers about how to keep themselves and their loved ones healthy. They needed us to help them pay rent, fill empty refrigerators, and keep the heat running.

Like local governments do, Cook County rapidly responded. Our response was simple and quick: We sent cash payments of $600 directly to every eligible suburban Cook County resident earning less than 250 percent of the federal poverty line who applied — that amounts to $54,300 a year for a family of three. The […]