Post
Topic
Board Economics
Re: Basic income cut in Finland -> trouble
by
eternalgloom
on 09/12/2016, 18:01:53 UTC
This basic income will be paid every month to unemployed people who are currently on welfare benefits. It will be a test project and will only be available for a randomly chosen group:

Quote
Finland is about to launch an experiment in which a randomly selected group of 2,000–3,000 citizens already on unemployment benefits will begin to receive a monthly basic income of 560 euros (approx. $600). That basic income will replace their existing benefits. The amount is the same as the current guaranteed minimum level of Finnish social security support. The pilot study, running for two years in 2017-2018, aims to assess whether basic income can help reduce poverty, social exclusion, and bureaucracy, while increasing the employment rate.

I think it will have a positive effect on the employment rate  Wink But perhaps the Finnish government will have to raise the taxes in order to collect more money to give away to jobless people.
What is the cost of living in Finland and how does it compare to cost of living in other West European countries?
Is it possible to rent a flat and pay for basic utilities with that amount of basic income? Seems to be fairly low if the cost of living is similar to that of my country (Belgium).