How it would work
Added, not substituted
Health, education and services remain. A basic income is a floor, not a trade.
Two opposite proposals circulate under the same name, and they need to be told apart.
The version this site rejects
A sum per head is paid and the rest of the welfare state is dismantled: health, education, disability services. This proposal exists, and it would turn basic income into an exercise in cutting.
The version argued here
Basic income adds a monetary floor and leaves universal services standing, because they answer needs that money does not cover. Someone with high medical needs is not helped by a cheque identical to everyone else's.
Some existing cash benefits can be absorbed: those that perform the same function today with more bureaucracy.
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More principles on How it would work
Unconditional
Every resident
No means test, no obligation to seek work, no categories of eligible claimant.
Enough to live on
Reference: 60% of national median income
Above the poverty line — otherwise it does not change the balance of power and achieves little.
Individual
Every adult
To each person, not each household: that is what makes it possible to leave a home where you are unsafe.