2022 and early 2023 continues the basic income momentum with 48 new projects launching, which is more than the projects launched between 2015-2021 combined! The majority of projects were launched in the US under the umbrella of the Mayors for a Guaranteed Income Initiative.

This update’s regional focus is the UK & Ireland with two unconditional pilot schemes underway in the Republic of Ireland and Wales, and a third slated for England.

The government-sponsored Welsh basic income pilot is targeted towards care leavers who are turning 18 years of age between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023. It provides a monthly payment of £1,600 (£1,280 after tax) for two years to an expected 500+ recipients. Care leavers face significant and unique barriers to achieving a successful transition into adulthood, and this application of basic income seeks to ease their entry into adulthood.

Ireland also has a government-sponsored basic income program that is targeted towards creative workers which provides 325€ payment per week to 2,000 artists and creative workers for three years from 2022 to 2025. A control group of applicants who were not selected to take part in the trial will be established for evaluation purposes.

England is following suit with a UK ‘Big Local’ Basic Income two-year trial that is primed to launch once funding (likely from private philanthropic sources) has been secured. £1,600 per month is slated for 30 participants in Jarrow in North England and Grange, East Finchley. A control group of 30+ participants will also be established. To best emulate ‘universality’ given the micro-size of this pilot, the organisers will use a random sampling approach to recruit participants, with approximately 20% of places reserved for disabled people. 

The UK and Ireland basic income movement is active and exciting to watch. The three jurisdictions’ approach to basic income trials reflects in real time these following key design challenges and trade-offs:

The other key highlight from the latest Global Basic Income explorer is the UBI4ALL raffle. It is an initiative where anyone around the world can enter the monthly raffle to win an 800€ per month basic income for one year, totalling 9,600€. I think this is a nifty initiative that demonstrates how UBI momentum and action is not constrained to any one country or government. 

Conducting this latest dashboard update has been very encouraging, with society’s appetite for social welfare innovation driving an unprecedented number of basic income trials in the US, UK and Ireland. Although the majority of recent pilots are targeted in nature, I welcome these trials’ contributions to the basic income evidence base with the view and hope of moving towards a true unconditional and universal basic income.