The full impact of Finland’s UBI experiment is in - improving wellbeing, cognitive confidence, and a sense of personal control

Photo by Tapio Haaja on Unsplash

More good news on the basic income front - a long standing policy preference here, and something that has been moving right to the centre of the debate in the last few months of Corona-crisis. The Finnish government prematurely concluded its trial on basic income a few years ago - and was criticised for doing so - but it has just published a full study (in Finnish) of its impacts on its recipients, after the full two years of operation.

According to a report from the VATT Institute for Economic Research, which conducted the research alongside Finland’s Social Insurance Institution:

  • Survey respondents who received basic income described their wellbeing more positively than respondents in the control group.

  • They were more satisfied with their lives and experienced less mental strain, depression, sadness and loneliness.

  • They also had a more positive perception of their cognitive abilities, i.e. memory, learning and ability to concentrate. 

There seems to have been no disincentive towards employment, indeed a slight improvement in finding it, compared to other welfare recipients (6 days more over a whole year).

Anthony Painter, chief research and impact officer at the RSA, and a long-standing UBI advocate, said to The Scotsman:

Wellbeing is a vital measure of economic insecurity. The Finnish Basic Income trials results show the importance of getting cash to people now is crucial. Even getting a small amount of money has a big effect on people’s agency and sense of control, especially those in real trouble, who this experiment focused on.

The scheme did not have negative effects on employment; if anything, it was positive – an important rebuke to those who think it would lead to more people being lazy.

More basic income experiments are needed in the UK. RSA modelling for Scotland’s proposed pilots found an initial basic income of £48 per week would be affordable – largely funded by turning the personal allowance into a cash payment, fiscally progressive for low-and-middle earners, and halve destitution overnight.

We need to explore this model being applied across the UK as part of a new social contract for Britain’s recovery after Covid-19 as the furlough scheme is wound down.

The Guardian reports some interesting detail from the Finnish researchers on how UBI stabilised the users lifestyles, and enhanced their autonomy:

“Some people said the basic income had zero effect on their productivity, as there were still no jobs in the area they were trained for,” said Prof Helena Blomberg-Kroll, who led the study. “But others said that with the basic income they were prepared to take low-paying jobs they would otherwise have avoided.

“Some said the basic income allowed them to go back to the life they had before they became unemployed, while others said it gave them the power to say no to low-paid insecure jobs, and thus increased their sense of autonomy.”

The scheme also gave some participants “the possibility to try and live their dreams”, Blomberg-Kroll said. “Freelancers and artists and entrepreneurs had more positive views on the effects of the basic income, which some felt had created opportunities for them to start businesses.”

It also encouraged some participants to get more involved in society, by undertaking voluntary work, for example. “Some found the guaranteed income increased the possibility for them to do things like providing informal care for their family or their neighbours,” said one of the researchers, Christian Kroll.

“The security of the basic income allowed them to do more meaningful things, as they felt it legitimised this kind of care work. Many of the people who performed such unpaid activities during the two-year period referred to it as work.”

Kroll said the results of the study could support arguments both for and against basic income. “But as we’ve all learned in the early part of 2020, insecurity is not a good way to live,” he said.

“While basic income can’t solve all our health and societal problems, there is certainly a discussion to be had that it could be part of the solution in times of economic hardship.”

Figure6_Oxford.png

A March poll of over 12,000 respondents across Europe, conducted by Oxford University’s European Opinions project, found that a remarkable 71% of Europeans supported the introduction of a universal basic income. (Yet it’s an odd study - finding also that “53% of young Europeans place more confidence in authoritarian states than democracies to handle the climate crisis”). 

The growing nuance around the UBI debate is welcome - the worst advocacy for it claims it as a magic bullet, serving the targets of many shooters across the ideological spectrum. We point you, as always, for the imaginative and human-potential-oriented case for UBI, articulated by our friend Phil Teer in his recent (A/UK-inspired) book, The Coming Age of Imagination.