The Finnish government is currently drawing up plans to introduce a national basic income. A final proposal won’t be presented until November 2016, but if all goes to schedule, Finland will scrap all existing benefits and instead hand out 800 euros per month—to everyone.
It sounds far-fetched, but it’s looking likely that Finland will carry through with the idea.
[...]
for those outside Finland, the plan raises two obvious questions: Why is this a good idea, and how will it work?
It may sound counterintuitive, but the proposal is meant to tackle unemployment. Finland’s unemployment rate rose to 11.8% in May (though it was back down to 8.7% in October) and a basic income would allow people to take on low-paying jobs without personal cost. At the moment, a temporary job results in lower welfare benefits, which can lead to an overall drop in income.
Read more: qz.com
I've actually known about this for a month or so. The way the system is currently set up, if you are on some type of assistance and you take a part time or low wage job, you end up actually losing income.
Not to mention, there is an incredible amount of overhead involved in running the current system that could be eliminated.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
It sounds far-fetched, but it’s looking likely that Finland will carry through with the idea.
[...]
for those outside Finland, the plan raises two obvious questions: Why is this a good idea, and how will it work?
It may sound counterintuitive, but the proposal is meant to tackle unemployment. Finland’s unemployment rate rose to 11.8% in May (though it was back down to 8.7% in October) and a basic income would allow people to take on low-paying jobs without personal cost. At the moment, a temporary job results in lower welfare benefits, which can lead to an overall drop in income.
Read more: qz.com
I've actually known about this for a month or so. The way the system is currently set up, if you are on some type of assistance and you take a part time or low wage job, you end up actually losing income.
Not to mention, there is an incredible amount of overhead involved in running the current system that could be eliminated.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

