SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The Liberal premier of Ontario announced details of the Ontario Basic Income Pilot. The provincial government issued a press release saying
Three regions will take part in the study. Pilots will start in late spring in Hamilton, including Brantford and Brant County; and in Thunder Bay and the surrounding area. The third pilot will start by this fall [autumn] in Lindsay.
The Basic Income model Ontario has developed will ensure that eligible participants receive:
Up to $16,989 per year for a single person, less 50 per cent of any earned income
Up to $24,027 per year for a couple, less 50 per cent of any earned income
Up to an additional $6,000 per year for a person with a disability.
[...] The three test regions will host 4,000 participants eligible to receive a basic income payment, between the ages of 18 to 64. By late spring, people in these areas will begin receiving information about the pilot and how to participate. The province is partnering with these communities and other experts to make sure that the Ontario Basic Income Pilot is fair, effective, and scientifically valid.
additional coverage:
- Canoe (editorial)
- The Globe and Mail
- globalnews.ca
- The Guardian
- Business Insider
- BBC News
- Canadian Press via City News
- Reuters via NASDAQ
- Toronto Star
- CHCH-TV
- CBC
- CNN Money
related story:
Ontario is Starting a Universal Basic Income Pilot
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Wednesday April 26 2017, @11:13AM
What part of it do you have a problem with (especially without a lot more detail on the small print)?
There's a limit in how far you can "pilot" basic income, since a true scheme would have to be tightly integrated with the tax, healthcare, pension and disability benefits system.
Is it the 50-cents-in-the-dollar clawback? Basic income is only going to be affordable if people on higher incomes repay their BI through raised taxes. In a proper BI scheme the clawback would be integrated into the income tax system - making it part of the BI rules is a necessary kludge for a pilot.
As for only selecting lower earners for the pilot: see above - a well executed BI system would be a zero-sum game for higher earners.
Including a disability allowance? Under a BI system this would still be necessary, but unlike regular disability benefits it would just be to pay for additional, disability-related living expenses, not to compensate for lost earnings. In a proper BI system, it could be integrated into healthcare.
Until we get a bit closer to a post-scarcity society, the main role of a BI scheme would be to replace complex, interdependent welfare schemes that are expensive to administer and interact to create "poverty traps" whereby people can be left worse off by taking a job. The tricky bit would be passing the law prohibiting offering any other concessions to people on BI (otherwise its back to the poverty trap scenario).